The Devil Prince
by Ocean Wave Kira
Summary: Everyone thinks that Ryoma is the only Prince of Tennis. They're wrong. What about that kid at Rikkaidai who dared to challenge the Three Demons? The one the world deems as the Devil? What's his story? After all, there's always more than one prince.
1. The Rebel

Hiya! Oceanwavekira back again! I should really be writing my other story but I kept thinking about this one too much, even after I got back into _Bleach_. Oh well.

This story is focused on Kirihara's journey from the time he entered Rikkai Dai to before Ryoma comes. Depending on how well it goes, it may even go past that and tell the story of _Prince of Tennis_ from the Rikkai Dai team's perspective. Eh, I'll wait and see.

The reason I wrote this story, apart from not getting it out my head and writer's block, is that I love Kirihara Akaya and couldn't find a current ongoing story about him from when he began middle school. I think he needs a little more love, so it led to this. This first chapter is mostly from the OVA _Another Story: __The Trials of Rikkai -A Rebel who Challenges an Emperor_. Anything else after this are any ideas I get.

So, I hope that you guys will read this and review on what's good, bad, or anything else you think about when reading it. I really appreciate your comments and will use them to become a better writer.

With enough said, enjoy!

**Note as of April 11, 2010:** As a reader pointed out, this chapter is pretty boring since it's practically a copy of the OVA. Please understand that I wanted to keep this story as close as possible to how Takaeshi Konomi wrote _The Prince of Tennis_. I didn't mean to offend anyone by writing it this chapter like this. It will be hopefully be more interesting and original in the future for you guys. I hope you guys will continue reading this despite that.

* * *

Before you begin...

**Note: Please excuse any kind of grammar, spelling, and/or other errors. Spell check is not always perfect and I may not catch everything in it.**

_Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis or any of its characters except my version of the plot and characters.

* * *

_

_-o-o- Chapter 1 -o-o-_

_The Rebel_

_-o-o--o-o--o-o--o-o--o-_

'Thoughts'

"Speaking"

* * *

A clear blue sky hung high above the clouds, beaming warmth down on the early spring morning. The ocean was clear and birds chirped in the air. People walked down streets, beginning another day. Cars drove up and down roads, their motors ringing in the air. Another prefect day in Kanagawa Prefecture.

Except for one boy that was still snoring in his room.

Footsteps could be heard from outside the door, stomping up from downstairs. As they got louder as they approached the door, the boy continued to sleep, lost in his aimless dreams of becoming number one. A deep intake of breath was taken.

"GET UP, YOU LAZY PILE OF BONES!!!"

"GAH!"

**BAM!**

Birds flew quickly away, startled by the loud screech the boy had made when he had fallen out of bed. His sheets tangled around his body, causing him to fall off and onto his cluttered floor. Comics, magazines, clothes, everything littered the floor. Things that should have been neatly put away were left scattered over or under anything that he had in his room.

More banging came from outside the door as the boy groaned. "Kirihara Akaya! If you do not get up this instant, you will not make it to school on time!" The boy grumbled something under his breath before cowering back when the voice shouted again. "What was that, mister?!"

"N-Nothing, okaa-san! Nothing!" Kirihara cried, trying to calm his angry mother. Pulling the sheets off his head, curly black hair sprung up in every direction as green eyes blinked warily, sleep erased from the startling wake-up call from his mother. Releasing a sigh of relief as he heard the footsteps head back downstairs, Kirihara stood up and stretched.

'Safe for now,' the boy thought, grinning at the disaster avoided. He started to move towards his closet when he froze, remembering what his mother had just told slashed yelled at him. School…school…

His eyes widened in shock as it finally sunk in.

"AH!!! I'M GONNA BE LATE FOR MY FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!"

* * *

Barely grabbing a power bar to go, avoiding his mother's wrath, and remembering to put on his uniform, the seaweed haired boy shot out of his house. A tennis bag swung over his shoulder, Kirihara raced down the street, eager. Today was the day that he had been waiting for; a day he dreamed of for a long time.

Running past people and buildings, Kirihara kept a grin on his face the whole time he ran. He didn't bother to stop to observe the beautiful spring day it was. He didn't stop at the arcade he spent hours at. He didn't bother to stop when his shoelaces came undone. Until he tripped, then he stopped to tie them.

After about fifteen minutes of running with only one stop, Kirihara saw students dressed in the same black uniform with striped blue and white ties walking towards the same destination. Despite beginning to feel his legs become sore and his breath become heavier, Kirihara began sprinting past everyone.

Running down the street pass everyone, he blocked out watching what the other student's reactions were. A boy with red hair stopped yawning and looked in surprise when Kirihara ran passed him. His dark skin friend next to him widened his eyes in response as well. Further ahead, a dark purpled hair guy with glasses looked up from the book he was reading, having heard Kirihara passed. Blue eyes belonging to someone with silver hair followed the boy as he ran ahead.

After running who knows how many miles, Kirihara finally saw the school gate of the school. Reading the characters, he read the name to himself in his head.

'Rikkai University-Affiliated Middle School.'

And he got to meet the sign up close and personal. Continuing his pace, Kirihara bent his knees and jumped up onto the school's stone gate. Landing on all fours, he chuckled as he thought about what was going to happen to him now. Standing up, he faced the large, popular, famous school he was about to enter.

"Starting today, I'm a Rikkai Middle School freshman, huh?" Kirihara said to himself, musing. He flashed back to when he saw the school's tennis team in a magazine, the team having won the National Tournament. Looking down a bit, he ignored the looks other students were giving him. If he had continued looking up, he may have seen the three sophomores already at the school stopping and glancing at him.

"At this school," he began. "I'll join the tennis club that's number one in the nation!" He closed his eyes, taking in the thought. Then, with uttermost confidence, he blurted out, "Then I'll become number one!"

"Hey!"

"Eh?!" Kirihara yelped, cringing from hearing someone yell at him. Glancing downwards, he finally noticed all the other students looking up towards him. Normally that wouldn't bother him, except that there was one of the teachers standing nearby him. And with a good chance of steam coming out of his ears, the boy gulped.

The teacher glared up at him. "What do you think you're doing up there?!" he shouted. "Get yourself down this instant!"

Gulping again, Kirihara grabbed the ledge and tried to climb down as quickly as possible. "S-Sorry!" he yelled back as a apology, wanting to escape as soon as possible.

Managing to jump down from the remainder of the wall, Kirihara smiled sheepishly at the furious teacher. Taking a step back, he waved a small goodbye. "Ah… Bye sensei! I… uh… gotta go!" and he took off as fast as he could. The teacher blinked for a second, having been startled by the speed Kirihara took off at. But then he remembered what he was going to do.

"YOUNG MAN!!! GET BACK HERE THIS INSTANCE!!!"

* * *

Managing to escape the teacher, Kirihara raced towards his classroom after receiving his schedule. He was late and he knew it. His mom would kill him for being tardy _again_ for not being in class on time; and it'll be worst today since it was his first day of school. Determined not to have to face that again, he picked up his speed and sprinted.

Banging the door wide open and scaring practically all of his fellow classmates, Kirihara ran in and slammed the door shut behind him just as the bell rang. Sighing in relief, the seaweed head sunk towards the floor, eager for some rest. However, lady fate didn't seem please with him today.

"Good morning, class!" his homeroom teacher shouted cheerfully, sliding the door wide open. Not having noticed her before, Kirihara yelled out before tumbling to the side from trying to get up to quickly. His classmates broke out in laughter, shock finally passing.

His teacher, Kinjo-sensei, looked down at him in worry. "Are you alright? Does it hurt anywhere?"

Jumping to his feet, Kirihara shook his hands. "No, I'm a-ok!" the boy grinned, giving a thumbs up just to prove it. Kinjo-sensei smiled sweetly back at him before it vanished just as quickly. Shivers crept up the boy's spine and everyone else's.

"Good then. Now why are you out of your seat?" she ordered, voice like that of a drill sergeant. People not already in their own seats quickly rushed to one, using Kirihara as a distraction against the bi-polar teacher. She tapped he foot as she watched the green eyed boy glance around the room for an empty seat, sweating. "_Well?_"

"G-Gomen!" the dreaming to be number one tennis player yelped back, scrambling to a seat near the back of the room by the windows. He tripped over someone's bag and pretty much fell into his seat with a wave of frantic limps. Others around him giggled or chuckled at the scene he was causing before snapping their heads back up towards Kinjo-sensei. Her glasses casted off a glint of light as she stared with everyone at the same time, notebook in her hand.

Making sure she had the class' undivided attention, she smiled cheerfully before turning around and writing her name on the chalkboard. "Good morning everyone. My name is Kinjo Am---" anything said after Kirihara blocked out. He just wanted to get through the day and join the tennis team. After all, that was the reason he even came to this school. Getting killed by his teacher was not in the plan.

Pretending to pay attention in math, doodling in science, eating alone in lunch, getting drowsy in history, and finally falling asleep in English, Kirihara thought that the day would never end. Too bad that the teacher he had for English caught him sleeping. And when he ended up trying to escape, he was faced with the horrible job he done on his English assignment. It wasn't his fault, though! He just didn't get English and didn't see the point of it. Nonetheless, the boy was unable to leave as soon as he wanted.

Grumbling, the boy began rewriting the words in English on a piece of paper multiple times as instructed by his teacher. For each of the words he got wrong, which was all thirty words, he had to rewrite it twenty-five times before he was allowed to go. And he still had the additional homework his teacher piled up on him for sleeping through his boring lesson. His English teacher was now one of those on his most hatred list. He sneezed about twenty minutes later since school got out and grumbled again.

Finally, after a hour later, Kirihara was finished. Slamming his work down on to the teacher's desk, the seaweed haired kid grabbed his bag and stormed out of the room. The halls were deserted, everyone having gone home already or at a club. Early rays of the setting sun were coming through the windows, making the halls glow. It only brought displeasure to the tennis loving boy.

Flying out the front door, Kirihara raced down the courtyard. Sweat began forming on his forehead, worried about making the registration on time. Despite being the number one school in Japan, the school only accepted new applicants on the first day of school unless otherwise. If he didn't make it in time, everything that he had been working for would be crushed before he even stepped onto the tennis court.

"Damn it!" Kirihara yelled. "Now I'm super late!" Today was just not his day.

Slowing to a halt at a cross yards, Kirihara breathed heavily, trying to catch his breath. He had just ran down two flights of stairs and halfway across the campus. Yet with all that hard work he _still_ was unable to find the tennis courts. He mentally cursed himself for not paying more attention when his sister was showing him the school's layout the other day.

Pushing that negative thought away, the seaweed haired brat glanced around, trying again to figure out where the tennis club room was. He had stopped in the middle of the school's courtyard, short of the fountain. Mentally cursing again, Kirihara looked around, trying to find someone, if anyone, that could help him get to the courts.

Something at the edges of his eyes caught his attention. Looking ahead, he spotted a guy with silver hair that looked vaguely familiar to him. He was dressed in shorts and yellow jersey with a black stripe across the chest. His hands were stuffed in his pockets as he walked aimlessly around.

A grin spread across his face while he raced over to the guy. He knew that all of Rikkai Dai's tennis players wore that same uniform. And if this guy was on the team, then he must certainly know where the tennis club room was. Too bad he didn't know who this guy was.

It was only afterward running across the campus and finding himself in the student council room did the boy realized that he had been tricked. Scowling, Kirihara took off again to find the courts. The next time he saw that guy, he was going to get his revenge on him. No one messed with a Kirihara and got away with it.

Running for another ten minutes, Kirihara finally managed to find the tennis courts. Too bad everyone else was already in uniform and warming up. Some of the seniors were even playing matches too. But he wasn't too worried about that right now; he wanted revenge.

Glancing around the courts full of people, the seaweed glared at nothing when he could not spot the silver haired trickster. "Dang it! Where is that guy?" A hand suddenly appeared, tapping his shoulder. Turning to the side, Kirihara got a surprise when the same hand poked his cheek.

Jumping backwards, Kirihara glared at a the redhead who poked him and Brazilian guy next to him. "What're you doing?!"

The redhead held up a piece of paper at him. "This is what you're lookin' for, isn't it?" Kirihara glanced at the piece of paper, which read 'Club Entry Form'. The boy smiled, all intentions for revenge gone. He looked like a kid who had just received the best Christmas present ever.

"That's right! This is it!" he cried happily, taking the piece of paper from him. Stuffing the form into his pocket, Kirihara introduced himself. "I'm the freshman --- Kirihara Akaya! Rikkai University Middle Tennis Club's Supper Rookie!" He even held his arm upwards, doing a pose. "The Kirihara of whom you have hear so much... is me!"

The Brazilian scoffed, trying to mask his laughter. His friend instead chuckled at the freshman's bold declaration and introduction. Kirihara, however, looked on in confusion on why the two weren't acting amazed to see him.

"Eh? Is it possible you haven't heard of me?" he questioned, scratching his head. "That's weird. I'm a pretty well known guy in the Junior leagues."

Being the voice of reason, the Brazilian said, "We can go through that after you hand in your registration. Go get changed quickly, then you can join the others in swing practice." Kirihara stared at him in shock.

"Swing practice? You're kidding!" his eyebrows furrowed, sending the two a challenging look as he pointed towards the courts behind him. "Don't you think I can get right to having a match with the strongest guys?" His two senpais looked at him.

"See," Kirihara continued. "I want to make it to number one, ASAP." But before he could say anything else, another voice suddenly spoke out.

"Who are you?" Turning around, the three saw three other tennis players coming up towards them. Taking a close look at each one of them, the freshman's eyes widen when he figured out who they were. They were the current regulars of the Rikkai Dai tennis team. A smirk caught on his lips as a plan began to form in his head. He'll take on them and beat them, making him number one in the nation.

Ordering a challenge, Kirihara went off against each of them. And to the boy's utter disappointment the six players he went up against were nothing like he expected. Against all of them, he had won every single match. The boy wasn't even sweating by the time he was done.

Addressing the players he just beaten and the others gathered around the sides, he asked, "What's this? Getting to number one was easier than I thought." No one answered, still in shock with this boy's fearsome play of tennis. All of them were frozen, unable to speak a word.

"What on earth is all this fuss?" a new voiced called out. Turning around, people cleared the way for the speaker of the voice and the two people with him. The one who had spoken was a boy with navy-blue hair and purple eyes, a green headband in his hair. To his left was a guy with black-blue hair and light brown eyes, a stoic expression glued to his face. The last was a guy chestnut short brown hair and eyes practically closed.

"Yukimura!" the regular Kirihara had just beaten shouted. "Sanada! Yanagi!" Yukimura stopped short of him, a soft smile on his feminine face.

"It would seem you've been taken, sempai." he and the other two looked over the net at Kirihara.

"You!" Sanada barked. "New boy. What are you trying to pull?"

Kirihara waved his racket at them. "What'm I trying to pull? Can't you tell by lookin'?" He held his arms outwards, gesturing around the whole court. "I made myself number one in this club!"

"What's that?" Sanada questioned. Kirihara scratched his face.

"But I guess that nation's best ain't so much after all!" he replied, mocking the school at the same time. "I kinda thought you'd be a little stronger." Sanada's face darkened as his kouhai spoke.

"You brat!" Yanagi's head picked up and Yukimura looked directly at the boy, his fragile features suddenly filled with hidden malice.

"I think we might need to teach this one a little lesson."

Kirihara smirked. Three second-years? That was nothing.

* * *

How wrong he was.

Kirihara collapsed to his knees, eyes wide. Sweat dripped off of him, his breath rigid and in short gasps. He had just been beaten badly by three people in the same day. Never had something this bad ever happened to him all at once. And they were only one year his senior. He closed his eyes as Yukimura dismissed him, trying to hold back the tears that were threatening to spill.

Refusing the help from the redhead and his friend from earlier who were kind to him, Kirihara raced off the courts. Never had he been so humiliated in his life, especially in tennis. His confidence had been shattered and everything he dreamed of destroyed. And all by those three demons.

For the next two days Kirihara avoided the tennis courts and his family's questions on his sudden depression. Taking refuge in his second favorite place, the arcade, Kirihara played the various different games there, trying to distract himself. It didn't work.

"Kuso!" the boy shouted, hitting the game he had just lost at. "I lost the video game, too?!" Glancing at the top scores, the freshman scowled at the name of the top player. "Who is this fem-freak anyway?" Footsteps reached his ears, and as he looked up he saw a familiar face. Or faces.

The redhead from before grinned at Kirihara while pointing to himself. "That'd be me!" Kirihara glared at him and his friend before turning away in his seat.

"I might be first class, but no way I'm joining the tennis club!" he shouted, crossing his arms. He was still being a sore loser about what happened two days ago. The boy didn't see it that way, though. He saw it as... well... he didn't know what. But he denied it was being a poor sportsman.

"What's that?" Mr. fem-freak teased, ruffling Kirihara's already messy hair. "Still can't deal with the fact that you lost?" The boy tossed the boy's hand off his head.

"Even though those guys are just second-years, what the heck are they?" the freshman demanded, deciding this once to let the guy slide for ruffling his hair. He was too interested in knowing who those three guys were.

And that was how Kirihara met the second years Marui Bunta and Kuwahara Jackal officially. Taking him to a ramen shop, Jackal the one forced to pay for the meal, they told the freshman all about the three nicknamed the Three Demons throughout the tennis circuit. From how they led the Rikkai Dai tennis team to national victory to being considered some of the best in the country, the boy was told exactly who he played.

However, it reawaken Kirihara's drive for tennis rather than weaken it. He may know close to nothing about them but he still considered them middle schoolers just like him. Declaring he was going to beat all three of them, Kirihara ran out of the ramen shop, leaving behind two startled second-years. Never had they thought that a freshman who had just been humiliated in front of the whole tennis court three times still have the determination to bring the toughest players in the circuit down. Even if he wanted to, he had to work hard just to even stand a chance against them. That alone would take weeks, if not months or even years, to accomplish.

That's why no one could believe it that after two and a half weeks from defeat a seaweed haired brat challenged the widely known Emperor to a rematch.

* * *

Everyone on the tennis court was dead silence, the bell ringing three o'clock in the background. The sky was clear and blue, the wind quiet. No dared to utter a word. All eyes instead focused on the two lone figures who stood on the court. A determined freshman on one side, a stoic emperor on the other.

Both sides looked at each other. Kirihara's eyes narrowed, his grip tightened around the yellow ball. "Here I go." And up it went.

Eyes switched from side to side rapidly, trying to keep up with the blur of yellow. No one could believe it as Kirihara was able to return Wind of Furrin Kazan and manage to keep Sanada in a rally. A freshman! However, he was blown backwards when hit with the next move, Forest. Turning his back to the boy, Sanada proceeded to walk off the courts, believing the match was over.

"Don't you run off," Kirihara suddenly called, stopping the Emperor in his tracks. Picking himself up, the boy turned around. Blood red eyes smirked menacingly at Sanada. Students gasped and began muttering about the sudden change. Just who the hell was this kid?

"What's with his eyes?" Marui asked, freaked out by the kid. Never he, nor anyone else for that matter, had ever seen such eyes from a thirteen year old.

Sanada returned to the baseline, continuing the match. It was Kirihara's serve. His expression widen a little when he saw the way Kirihara was holding the ball. Rather than hold the ball with his fingers, they were turned inwards. Only his knuckles held the ball.

Kirihara served, the speed violently increased from before. Sanada rushed toward the net, anticipating nothing new. The ball crashed into onto the ground, leaving it a second later. Heading right towards Sanada's face.

**WHAM!**

Once again, the crowd was shocked into silence. Weaker players trembled in fear at the sight before them. Some of the stronger one gulped, their throat robbed of their voices. The regulars stood frozen, not believing what had happened either. Only Kirihara wasn't affected at what had happened, eyes glinting with glee.

The ball dropped, bouncing to a stop. It had stopped in the center of Sanada's racquet, the sheer force of it breaking or bending the strings. The racquet was positioned in front of the Emperor, inches away from his face. Just seconds later it would have hit its intended target.

Kirihara licked his lips, enjoying the moment. "I'm gonna waste you." Sanada's face darkened.

The match continued, balls flying over the net at a new pace. Mutters began once again, awed and shocked at the turn of events. Kirihara had control of the ball, making Sanada run everywhere on the court. Even when he invoked Mountain it had little to no effect at helping him at all. It seemed as if Kirihara was going to win.

It died soon. Once Sanada stopped holding back and used Fire, the tides were turned again. Again and again Sanada attacked with Fire, returning the ball either a smash, forehand, or backhand with unimaginable power. Each time Kirihara was sent flying backwards, nothing he knew able to counter the move.

After the fourth time Fire was used, Kirihara didn't return to his feet immediately. He laid on the ground, unmoving as Sanada stood like the mighty emperor he was. "What's wrong? Are you finished now?"

"No..." Kirihara answered, picking up his racquet. Teeth clenched, he faced Sanada again and got into his stance again. "Nowhere close!"

Even when thrown with something he had no hope of countering, Kirihara was nowhere close to giving up. After tasting defeat once, he was not going to go back there. Just like he was raised, he was going to keep fighting no matter what. He was going to become number one no matter what!

"That's enough," Yukimura suddenly interrupted, stopping the match. Kirihara looked up in surprise as the current fukubuchou of the Rikkai Dai tennis team stepped onto the court. "This is your loss, Kirihara-kun." The boy stared in shock.

"My..." Yukimura nodded.

"That's right. This is your loss." he finished. "With the strength you have now, no matter how often you try, the result will be the same." Kirihara looked down, fists clenched angrily.

"But you can become stronger," Yanagi added, surprising him. His eyes widened as he glanced at the Three Demons of Rikkai Dai, trying to see for himself if what they said were true.

Sanada picked up next. "Join the tennis club. Set your eye on even greater heights. We will play you at any time." Finished, he, Yukimura, and Yanagi walked off the courts. Others began following their lead, muttering among themselves as they left to change.

Kirihara was the only one that remained, frozen in spot. Join the tennis team? He hadn't had the intention of doing so ever since he had lost those two and a half weeks ago. In fact, he didn't even know if wanted to then. He was so focused on beating the Three Demons he didn't plan on what he would do if he won, or lose. Now that he did, what was he supposed to do now? Join them?

The answer came surprisingly easy to him once everyone was already long gone from the courts. Finalizing with that thought, Kirihara raced up the hill towards the lone figure walking away from the courts. Chasing after them, he called,

"I'm going to join the tennis club!" the freshman declared, stopping Sanada in his tracks. "But it's not 'cause I lost, got it? It's so some day I can beat you and become number one!" Silence overcame the two, the early rays of the sunset in the background.

Finally, Sanada spoke. "Is that so?" Kirihara grinned, rubbing his nose. He had made a promise and he wasn't going back on it at all. He looked back up when the Emperor spoke again. "In that case, start with the basics. 100 laps around the grounds, right now." The grin slipped from Kirihara's face.

"100 laps right now?!" he yelped, not prepared for the sudden order.

"Get going!" Sanada confirmed, forcing the boy to sprint past him towards the track. He was going to do everything to become number one, even if that meant killing himself in the process. Second thoughts entered his head, maybe he should have thought it through first.

Once Kirihara was out of site, Sanada chuckled. Raising a hand, he gripped his hair, and pulled. The black-blue hair came off easily, revealing the silver hair hidden underneath. 'Sanada', or otherwise known as the trickster of the school, Niou Masaharu, smirked.

"Puri~!"

* * *

Kirihara gasped as he slowly ran around the track, legs sore from already running five laps and his match from Sanada. Unaware to the freshman, his senpais were watching from above. Their eyes followed the seaweed haired rebel as he continued his 'training'.

Jackal sighed. "Guess that kid got tricked by Niou again." Marui laughed.

"He really is a neat kid."

Yukimura smiled as he watched the boy. Turning to Sanada and Yanagi, who were right next to him, he said, "I'd say things are starting to get fun." Sanada's face remained impassive at his friend's comment.

"Honestly!" the emperor exasperated. "He's too careless!"

Below, Kirihara kept running, believing he was on his way to becoming number one. And that was the beginning of Kirihara's journey.

Four months left until Nationals.

* * *

What'cha guys think? I'm hoping it didn't turn out like utter crap. This is the first story that I'm focusing on cannon characters as the main characters of the story. There will be OC's later on, but mostly likely players that fill the regular spots of some of the teams since some of them aren't regulars until Ryoma comes to Japan. I hope you don't hate OC's too much, though.

First couple of chapters will probably be based mostly on Kirihara before I move on to the rest of the team, hopefully. This is going to be a team/family fanfiction with possible couples in the FAR future. But more focused on the team part.

Before I leave, I want to ask you after reading this if I should have a beta or not. I don't play tennis personally so I don't know if the tennis scene from this chapter and future ones will be accurate. Your comments on that are really needed and appreciated.

And again, I hope you enjoyed it!

Sayonara!

*~Kira~*


	2. First Practice

Hello again! Gomen for the pretty late update. I've been quite busy with school and preparing for an upcoming piano exam. I hope you guys are enjoying life. Though, the random snow/hail last year was pretty freaky from where I live...

Anyways, before you guys begin, I want to first say, as an anonymous reader stated, that yes, the last chapter was pretty boring. It was more or less a copy of the OVA. However, before you nag and bag me like you most probably will, let me explain why I did it.

The reason I did this because I want to try and keep this story as close as possible to the plotline of _Prince of Tennis_ and the story itself. The OVA showed the true beginning of how Kirihara started at Rikkai Dai and I wanted to keep it as accurate as possible. I'm sorry if I offended some people for writing that. I'll try hard from now on to keep the story as original as possible. I'm glad that whoever wrote it told me, your comment really drove me to make this story different and truly my own fanfic. So, whoever you are, arigatou for saying what you really thought about it.

Also, **Ochibi Land**, thank you also for the story alert and favorite stories. **Ruthaer**, many thanks to you for being my first reviewer and adding this story to your favorites. I will try hard to continue this story and give Kirihara a bit more love.

I'm sure that you're annoyed with me writing all of that. So, I'm going to let you guys start reading. Please review on anything you think about and if there is anything I should do that will help improve the story.

Now, enjoy!

* * *

Before you begin...

**Note: Please excuse any kind of grammar, spelling, and/or other errors. Spell check is not always perfect and I may not catch everything in it.**

_Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis or any of its characters except my version of the plot and characters.

* * *

_

_-o-o- Chapter 2 -o-o-_

_First Practice_

_-o-o--o-o--o-o--o-o--o-_

'Thoughts'

"Speaking"

* * *

Kirihara yawned, rubbing his eyes. After running all hundred laps and dragging his butt home, he had passed out the second his head hit his pillows. If it wasn't for his older sister throwing him off his bed this morning, he would have been late for school as well. That didn't excuse him from having incomplete homework, though. The poor boy missed lunch in order to make up for it.

Now, he was at his first official tennis practice. And he was BORED.

"Today, all non-regulars and regulars will have matches today. First-years will pick up balls," the buchou of the Rikkai Dai tennis team ordered. Yukimura stood next to him, his calm appearance in contrast to his senior's stern one.

"And don't forget," the Child-of-God added. "make sure you try your best." His eyes swept the entire area, shivers crawling up everyone's backs. People began scrambled in all directions, trying to find a partner and get away as fast as possible. No one dared defied him. Not even his buchou.

However, there was one kid who decided not to.

"Aw, that's stupid. I'm better than the others here to have to pick up balls!" Kirihara complained, stretching. He ignored the hundred something glares the 'lesser' tennis players were giving him. His own green eyes focused on Yukimura.

Sanada stepped up to stand next to Yukimura, eyes narrowed at the seaweed haired kid. "You dare challenge your senpais?" Kirihara looked at him.

"Well, ye---hmph!" the kid began, only to suddenly have his mouth clamped by someone's hand. Waving his arms out frantically, Kirihara tried unsuccessfully to escape from the red head that holding him in a headlock.

Marui gave a grin as he blew a bubble. "Nope! He's a bit cranky from running so much yesterday!" Boy mentioned glared up at his senpai.

"Hmph hmma hmm!" he tried to yell, a vein pulsing on his forehead. He let out a muffled yelp when Marui kicked his shin.

Sanada still didn't buy it. "Marui, you and K---" A hand grasped his shoulder, effectively cutting the teen off.

"Sanada, leave them be," Yukimura interrupted, smiling his angelic smile. Looking at his friend and struggling new recruit, he added, "Marui, why don't you let him practice with you today?" the redhead nodded, using his hand to forcibly shake Kirihara's head as well. Still smiling, Yukimura lead Sanada away so that the two could monitor the other club members.

The redhead sighed in relief once the two were gone from his sight. "That was close. You shouldn't try to---YEOW!" Marui began before screaming as he felt pain. Pushing the freshman away from him, Marui shook his hand wildly and cradled it, glaring at the boy. "What was that for?!"

Kirihara glared back, face red. "I couldn't breathe!"

**Sweat drops.**

Marui smiled sheepishly, scratching the back of his head as Kirihara continued to glare at him. "Haha, sorry about that."

"Hmph!"

The redhead rolled his eyes as Kirihara continued to act like a kid. Well, he technically still was. Gripping the boy by his sleeve, he began dragging him towards one of the furthest courts, ignoring the boy's cries and shouts. He twitched violently when one of Kirihara's flailing limps nailed him in the jaw.

"Will you quit that?!" Marui snapped, dodging a foot from hitting a place where the sun don't shine. "If you keep doing that, you'll going to make us run laps!"

"Then give me a match!" Kirihara retorted, breaking out of Marui's grip and straightening his clothes. "I'm not like the other freshman! I can do whatever you guys can do! So stop treating me like a little kid!"

"By the way you're acting right now, you are a kid," a voice chuckled behind them. Pivoting around, Kirihara and Marui found Niou walking towards them with another teen behind him. Kirihara's eyes widened as he saw the guy. The guy covered his eyes with a pair of tinted glasses and had purpled colored hair.

Kirihara pointed at him. "You!" Marui glanced between the two, Niou snickering in the background.

"Eh? Kirihara-kun? You know Yagyuu?"

The boy named Yagyuu pushed his glasses up. "Yes, we have met. If I am correct, you ran into the student council room on the first day of school, declaring you were sorry for being late for tennis practice." Marui burst into laughter, ignoring the twitching boy.

"That wasn't my fault! He tricked me!" Kirihara complained, pointing at the silver trickster. Pointed at trickster smirked. The freshman 'hmphed' again.

Having heard wind of the argument, Marui's doubles' partner walked over with a sigh. "What's going on now?" Kirihara pointed to Niou and Marui, acting like a little kid blaming someone else for something.

"They won't let me play a match!" he complained, earning sweat drops and chuckles from his senpais. Rubbing his head, Jackal wondered how he always ended up in these kinds of situations.

"Kirihara-kun, we're primary double players. Playing against you wouldn't be a fair matchup because you're a singles player." The stubborn boy rolled his eyes.

"You're just saying that 'cause your scared!" he retorted, not buying the semi-explanation. "I want a match! Now!"

**Dot. Dot. Dot.**

Yagyuu looked down at Kirihara. "You shouldn't be acting like some spoiled kid." The scolded boy scoffed. "You should accept what it is and do it."

"But I---"

"Marui! Aren't you supposed to be playing a match right now?" the team's official buchou called, finally spotting the lingering players. "And the rest of you, why aren't you practicing as well?"

Niou placed an elbow on Kirihara's head, using it as a support to lean his head against his palm. "This little seaweed haired brat is throwing a tantrum right now."

"HEY!"

The buchou frowned, orange eyes narrowed. Spotting the other three standing nearby doing nothing, his eyes narrowed more. "We do not tolerate laziness. Forty laps for all of you, now!" Marui's bubble popped.

"Eh?! Forty laps?! That's insane!" he whined, now acting like a little kid himself. The sugar loving doubles player had a problem with his stamina, unable to play long matches as a result. Chewing sweets or anything high in sugar resolved the problem but didn't provide a longer term solution and wasn't good for his health either.

Their buchou 's foot tapped impatiently. "Do you want me to triple that and add Yanagi's newest creation to that as well?"

**Pales.**

"I'm going! I'm going!" Marui yelped, scrambling towards the track field. The other regulars followed quickly behind, a silver trickster dragging along a confused and startled freshman. Kirihara was about to protest himself about the new punishment and what they drink they were so afraid of when Niou had kicked him in the shin and pulled him away. A smirking third-year was left behind, watching the five disappear from the courts.

Once they were on the track, Kirihara pulled away from Niou and glared at him. "Hey! What was that for?!"

Jackal, who had already begun running, looked back and explained. "Yanagi has a tendency to… create new drinks for everyone that is claimed to improve different aspects of our bodies." Kirihara still didn't get it.

"So?"

"Ever had rotten eggs dipped in soy sauce and vinegar?" Niou asked, beginning his own forty laps. Kirihara frowned, not getting why he said it.

"No, who the hell who?" the boy answered, following behind. "And what does that have to do with the stupid drink?"

Marui, who was running next to the boy, 'tsked' at the language Kirihara was using. "Ya, a kid shouldn't speak like that to your elders." A large vein appeared on the scolded boy's forehead, annoyed that he was once again called a kid.

"I'm not a kid!" the redhead nodded in agreement.

"Hai, you're a baby brat instead."

**PULSE VEIN.**

"GET BACK HERE!!!" Kirihara stormed, chasing after the guy who even dared to call him a baby. Chased at teen laughed at the boy and sped up, amused at his antics. Niou snickered as he watched the two pass a weary Jackal and an emotionless Yagyuu.

Usually the silver head hated laps, the running taking time away from the all the 'good' things he could be doing to others. But with the added entertainment the new freshman was bringing to the team, he believed that maybe the laps wouldn't be as bad now.

"TAKE THAT BACK, BAKA!!!"

"Language, kid, language!"

"I'M. NOT. A. KID!!!"

Oh yes, thinks would definitely be better from now on.

* * *

Forty laps later and twenty minutes of yelling, five tired bodies laid scattered along the track. Short breaths came out of their mouths, lungs exhausted and overworked. Kirihara did not give up at all as he chased Marui, being incredibly stubborn. Niou joined in on the chase by chasing him when the boy decided to get revenge on the trickster by tripping him when he wasn't paying attention. Yagyuu, being the gentleman he was, ignored them as if he hadn't seen them every day since he started middle school. Jackal, on the other hand, gave up running after them in five laps to get them to calm down. He knew that despite his mother-hen instincts, there was no way he would be able to catch them.

By the time it had ended, Marui was in the worst condition out of all of them. His low level of stamina really was his downfall. He laid sprayed out on the warm spring class, sweat covering his body in a thin, sticky layer. Jackal sat next to him, hands supported his weight as he leaned back on them. Niou was in a similar position nearby. The only one standing was Yagyuu, rather not disgrace himself by dropping to the ground in exhaustion like some dog.

And Kirihara? He was on his stomach, having collapsed seconds after finishing. Though he ran one hundred laps yesterday, he had ran at a much slower pace throughout the whole thing. Today, he practically sprinted after Marui in revenge all of the laps.

"I… need… sweets!" Marui complained, draping a hand over his face. Jackal looked over and made a face.

"It's bad for your health to eat something like that after exercising," he scolded, mothering personality taking over. His partner made a face.

"Hey… it's not my… fault that sugar… gives me… energy," the redhead retorted, digging around his pocket, hoping he still had a piece of apple bubblegum left. The Brazilian shook his head as he cried out in delight when he found a piece and hurriedly stuffed it into his mouth, chewing rapidly.

Niou stood up, having regained most of his energy back. Spotting the unmoving seaweed head, the trickster walked over and nudged the boy ever so gently with a foot. "Yo, get up, lazy head."

Kirihara grumbled something, not in the mood to get up yet. He grunted when Niou poked him again in the side with a foot but still refused to get up. He only twitched when Niou did it again.

Yagyuu approached the two, having watched the entire thing. Looking down at the freshman, he said, "Get up. There's still the rest of practice left." Grumbles answered him.

Niou opened his mouth to say something before it snapped shut when he spotted the buchou coming towards, Yanagi by his side. His face paled slightly has he saw that the member of the Demon Three had a pitcher in his hands. A pitcher filled with a dark blue liquid in it.

Their buchou eyed the five bodies scattered among the grass. "What are you guys doing now? No one should be resting. The District Preliminary is approaching; this is not the time to be slacking off." Marui gave his senpai a look.

"You'd think we'll lose?" he questioned, eyebrow raised. Their buchou narrowed his eyes.

"No, Rikkai Dai will not lose," he answered confidently. "but we need to show them that we will winning the Nationals again this year. It's a time to show our strength."

Kirihara grunted something incoherently, just barely picking his head up. "Wow, that was so sappy."

**Twitch.**

"Yagyuu, why don't you give him some of that juice you just made this week?" the buchou asked, body twitching violently. The closed eyed man nodded, seeing no problem with it. Everyone but Yagyuu and Kirihara paled as the data man of the school shook the contents of the pitcher slightly.

Hearing the word 'juice', the freshman's head picked up eagerly, thirsty. "Oi! What is it?" Marui laughed sadly at the poor, naïve boy.

"You really don't want to try that, kid. You really don't." he warned. Kirihara's checks puffed up; angry that his senpai was telling him to not accept the seemingly cool drink he really wanted.

"Why not? It's juice!" he snapped, annoyed. Niou shook his head, snickering.

"What was it last time, Marui?" the trickster asked the redhead, ignoring the annoyed boy. Asked redhead shrugged, finger on his chin as he thought carefully.

"I dunno. I think it was something that was supposed to taste like citrus but ended up like octopus mixed with vegetable juice," he answered, looking expectantly at the seaweed haired boy. The blood drained from Kirihara's face, finally catching on to what the two was trying to imply.

Niou shook his head, disagreeing with him. "Nah, it tasted more like sewage with onions." His blue eyes laughed silently as he watched Kirihara's face turn paler and paler with each word.

Their buchou , catching on, decided to join in as well. Turning to the man responsible for the drinks, he asked, "What was really in that last drink, anyway?"

"Milk, nuts, cabbage, onions, peppers, shrimp, sugar, and raw eggs," Yanagi listed, causing not only Kirihara but everyone present to pale. Even Yagyuu, who was trying hard not to listen in. "The drink in the pitcher, though, is to help regain stamina, not help to improve building muscles."

…

…

…

"GET AWAY FROM ME!!!" Kirihara shrieked, jumping up and crashing his head into Niou's chin. Not bothering to apologize to the stumbling regular, the boy sprinted in a random direction, wanting to be anywhere but there at the moment. Six pairs of eyes followed his figure as he crashed into innocent bystanders that stood in his fleeing stampede.

Marui whistled, impressed at the speed his kouhai had run off at. "He's pretty fast despite being so small."

"The speed he went off at is almost the same as Shishido Ryo from Hyoutei Gakuen, an uprising player who specializes in speed." Yanagi commented, scaring the others around him. "Though he is also not an official regular, he is becoming widely known because of his obsession of his long hair and ability to get to practically every ball possible."

**Dot. Dot. Dot.**

His buchou gulped at all the stalker-ish things his junior just sprouted. "T-That's a bit much, isn't it? How the heck do you remember all of that?" Before the asked man could answer, Yagyuu cut in.

"I believe that is best left unknown," he said, and the others quickly agreed as Yanagi smiled slightly. No matter how curious they could be, it was better if they didn't know how he got all that information and manage to retain it effortlessly. They didn't want to get nightmares.

Niou placed his hands on the back of his head. "Should we go find that little shrimp? I think he needs a little taste of it after running off like that, puri~"

* * *

However, contrary to what they had first thought of, finding a Kirihara who did not want to be found was much harder than they expected. After going back to the courts to find the boy, they found the place in utter confusion and chaos. The boy they were looking for had come running through the area yelping of the 'the dreaded evil juice is going to kill me!' and immediately sent everyone in panic of the thought of another drink Yanagi had mixed up. Usually Sanada and Yukimura would be able to handle it but were absent at the time, the two gone to kick out the early spies that wanted info on the tennis team. So, it left people shouting in dismay and running around trying to find some place to hide.

In punishment for being off task, everyone was sent to run fifty laps around the track. Their buchou went with them to make sure they did their laps while the other five were in charge of finding the freshman to blame for this. They first checked the courts, then the locker room, supply room, and the nearby courtyard. However, out of all of those places, one seaweed haired boy was absent in all of them.

Only when the five decided to check the area near the water fountain did they find the boy. He was walking calmly around, no longer worried about the 'evil juice' he had previous been screaming about earlier. A tennis ball was being thrown up and down in his hand as he walked. The boy didn't seem at all worried anymore about drinking the possibly deadly juice. Not wanting to send the boy bolting, they slowly approached the boy.

If it wasn't for the lone tennis ball Yagyuu tripped over, they would have successfully captured the freshman. Falling down in a very un-gentlemanly manner, the seaweed haired brat had turned around sharply at the sound before he started running. Ignoring the fallen teen, the other four gave chase after him, a staggering Yagyuu close behind.

By some ironic course of fate, the running boy and the chasing party behind him found themselves running past the other club members still doing laps around the track. Spotting the boy that caused them to run laps, everyone joined in on chasing Kirihara around the school. Not even their buchou could do anything to make them stop and resume the laps. He, in the end, got trampled on by the rampaging crowd and ended up spending the rest of practice knocked out on the ground.

Despite having just ran forty laps straight and having little time to recover, Kirihara could really run when being chased by around by the fifty something members of the tennis team and the fear of Yanagi's juice. For the next ten minutes, he was chased around the school from hallway to hallway to building to building. And during the whole time, it amazed him that no one managed to catch him.

That was until he crashed into Sanada near the front gate.

Grabbing the boy by the collar of his shirt before he could escape, Sanada effectively stopped the boy from running around anymore. The club members close behind him froze and crashed into each other when they saw the Child-of-God and Emperor standing in front of them. And judging from the furious expression on Sanada's face, they were in deep trouble.

"What is the meaning of this?" Sanada demanded, getting straight to the point. Kirihara hanged limply in the older man's grip, terrified. No one answered.

Yukimura glanced through the crowd, trying to spot Yanagi. When he did, he said, "Renji, what's going on here? Why is no one practicing?" The last member of the Three Demons looked back at him.

"Kirihara-kun here caused a bit of a commotion when he ran through the courts yelling," He explained. Yukimura's eyebrow rose.

"Yelling what, exactly?"

"That I'm not drinking the evil juice that will kill me if I take one sip!" the boy in question exclaimed, finally finding his voice again. He 'eeped' when he felt the grip on his shirt tightened.

"You disrupted practice for that?" the man holding his shirt questioned, coldness evident in his tone. Kirihara flinched, trembling in fear. Sanada looked like he wanted and was about to slap the boy when Yukimura placed a hand on his shoulder and spoke up again.

"Oh, I'm sure that you'll actually enjoy it," Yukimura smiled, smile holding a double meaning once again. "Yanagi's juices aren't that bad."

**STARE.**

'_ARE YOU INSANE?!'_ numerous people shouted into their heads, deciding to pity the poor freshman for once. From what they experienced, Yanagi's juices only tasted as good as the rumors stated **after** testing it first. No one really knew why it was like that, but they had a feeling he did it on purpose or someone requested him to. They were pretty sure that Yanagi could easily make it taste great on the first time. And there was a kind of big hint of someone who may have told him to hold back on making it perfect the first time. But the person in mind was someone they would never cross.

Taking the pitcher from Yanagi, Yukimura smiled at the quivering Kirihara. "Kirihara-kun, why don't you try it, eh? I'm sure you'll enjoy it." The teen nodded at Sanada, indicating that he should let the boy go. It was reluctantly done so, eyes narrowed in belief the punishment was not enough.

Kirihara held up a shaking hand, taking the pitcher. Looking at it, he gulped and looked with pleading eyes to Yukimura. "D-Do I have to drink it?" Yukimura nodded, still smiling.

"All of it."

Niou scoffed behind his hand, standing next to his doubles partner and the other doubles pair. "I wonder how long the brat's gonna be puking for." Marui looked closely at the dark blue mysterious liquid.

"I'll say five minutes." He answered, shooting a look at Niou when he rolled his eyes.

"Really? You really think he's got a strong stomach?" the trickster questioned, pointing towards the boy still staring at the pitcher. The redhead nodded, believing his estimate to be accurate. The silver head smirked and held up a hand. "He'll be in the bathroom for at least fifteen."

Marui took it. "You're on."

Jackal shook his head in defeat, finally giving up on getting his friends to stop their antics. Secretly in his mind, he believed that Kirihara would be doing it for ten minutes, but he wasn't one to bet. Especially with the self-proclaimed genius and infamous school trickster.

Everyone stared with wide eyes as Kirihara gulped one final time. Gripping the plastic pitcher tightly, they all watched as Kirihara slowly rose it towards his mouth. Opening his suddenly dried lips, he took a sip of the dreaded juice. And swallowed.

Breaths were held as they waited for the reaction.

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

"Ya! This is really good!" Kirihara exclaimed, grinning. Ignoring the shocked and startled looks on the others' faces, the freshman proceeded to down the remaining liquid. Mouths dropped open at the site of someone not puking after tasting a new juice created from Yanagi. The only one who done that was Yukimura and Sanada, the former being able to take it and the latter having the will not to puke publicly.

Marui and Niou blinked owlishly as Kirihara was halfway with finishing it. Jackal, recovering the quickest, turned towards the man responsible for the creation. "What is that?"

"As I said before," Yanagi answered, lips twitching upwards. "it's a juice that helps recovers stamina quickly."

"No," a random non-regular shouted. "what's IN it?!" an eyebrow rose from Yanagi.

"It's fruit punch," he answered simply. Insert stares.

"FRUIT PUNCH?!"

Yanagi nodded. "A simple contraption. Fresh fruit mixed in with water and sugar. Provides plenty of vitamins and a quick boost to restore energy." The staring continued.

"WHY DO YOU CHOOSE NOW TO SERVE SOMETHING GOOD NOW?!"

Sanada glared at the crowd, silencing them immediately. Unlike his friend, who was staring amusingly as Kirihara chugged the fruit punch down, he was not the situation any form of funny at all. Arms crossed, he ordered, "One hundred laps, now!"

"NANI?!"

"Wasting time that you could be improving your skills is not something done here in Rikkai Dai. This school produces winners; we do not lose," he continued, scowl alongside it. "In order to make up for the time lost while doing something so foolishly, the one hundred laps will remind you to do something the first time you are told. Understood?" Heads nodded furiously.

"H-Hai!"

Yukimura smiled at them. "Then, why are you all still standing here?"

**Blink.**

"QUICK!!! TO THE THE TRACK EVERYONE!!!"

Finally finished with the fruit punch, Kirihara looked around with owl eyes as he spotted that everyone was gone. Only him, Yukimura, Sanada, Marui, Jackal, Niou, and Yagyuu were there. Turning to the current fukubuchou, which was Yukimura, he asked, "Where'd everyone go?"

The feminine boy laughed a bit at the naive boy, once again amused by the freshman. Unconsciously, Kirihara was pouting from having no more juice to taste. Marui and Niou were chuckling secretly because of it. Looking down, he answered instead with, "Did you enjoy the juice, Kirihara-kun?" The boy nodded frivolously.

"Hai! It was good! Do you have any more?" the boy cried, turning towards Yanagi with puppy dog eyes. The data man, having only gotten those eyes from his older sister when she wanted something from him, was shocked. Being his sister, he had gotten used to her looks over time. After all, he didn't want to go shopping with her when she wanted to buy him more 'stylish' clothes. And hook him with a girl, declaring he was too 'anti-social'. Therefore, he thought he was immune to them. Oh how wrong he was.

In response to his shock, his eyes flew open, revealing his dark brown irises to the younger boy for the first time. Kirihara took note of it. "Hey! Your eyes opened!"

Marui and Niou burst into hysterical laughter, finding it funny that the usually calm under any circumstances Yanagi Renji opened his eyes when a boy a year younger gave him the puppy dog look. Jackal couldn't help but crack a smile at the sight and even Yanagi had to look away, trying not to chuckle. Sanada's eyebrow twitched, annoyed with all these childish situations. Yukimura laughed silently.

Kirihara, still completely obvious, continued the look. "Come on! I want more!" he whined, bouncing a bit. He was a bit hyper from the amount of sugar the fruit punch contained.

Marui and Niou leaned against each other, laughing on the behalf of Yanagi's discomfort. The man who was one of the Three Demons of Rikkai Dai, third best tennis player in the school, and resident data man was petrified when a practical child asked him for something to drink. They wished they had a camera to capture this once in a lifetime moment. But since they don't, laughing as much as they can would work.

Yukimura continued smiling as Yanagi tried to get them to shut up through a polite manner. Though Kirihara was definitely a handful with his childlike attitude, there was something about him that drew him to the tennis player. He didn't know what, yet, but he believed firmly that he would figure it out with time. Kirihara Akaya had something in him that many people didn't have. What, though, was still undetermined.

Kirihara cocked his head at the laughing duo, confused. "Oi, what's so funny?" The Child-of-God chuckled lightly. The light and peaceful atmosphere around them was comforting to the teen. It was rare for the regulars to have such fun during practice. He could hardly remember when all of them were together like this, laughing. Well, save for Sanada, but getting him to laugh was like getting a stone to talk. And it was all because of the seaweed kid in front of them.

_'If only the poor boy knew...'_ he mused, watching the scene in front of him. _'but for now...'_

"One hundred laps, for disrupting practice, Kirihara!" Sanada suddenly barked, remembering now why everyone was slaving away on the track. The barked at boy's eyes widened, not noticing as the two he previously had been questioning were now rolling on the ground in laughter.

_**"AGAIN?!"**_

"HAHAHA!!!"

* * *

Yeah... Not sure what I was thinking of when I wrote this chapter... And I just noticed that I tortured Kirihara and a bunch of other people with running excessive amounts of laps. Haha...

I have chapter four and five already written and parts of three done. Pretty odd, I know, but they were supposed to be all in chapter three. However, I decided it might be better to split it off after I started typing it because it was quite long and seemed to be better if it was in multiple chapters.

I'm still wondering if I should get a beta or not. Some of the dialogue between the characters seems a bit off and I would like your opinion on it. Next chapter will be a bit sadder, so I hope you guys won't hate me for that. And hopefully out sooner.

Hope you have a good night (or day, depending on where you are when you read this) and if you can, please review! They are greatly accepted!

Sayonara!

*~Kira~*


	3. Newfound Misery

Here's the next chapter. It's a bit shorter compared to the regular length of chapters I write. Not really any of the other regulars in this chapter, but they will appear in the next chapter. Well, some of them will. This one is more focused on Kirihara and with a bit more angst. (And not too OCC, I hope). Not sure if it's really good at all, but I hope you don't hate me for it.

I want to thank **CherriAme**, **MissMio**, **LellowOssapus,** and **Clarence Hikari**_**. **_Regarding **Clarence Hikari's** review, arigatou for reviewing and I will continue this story. I will try my best to keep the characters in character too.

One more thing before I let you begin: to the readers reading this story, do you honestly like this story? I don't mind the lack of reviews, but I would really like to know your thoughts on the story are. Is there something I need to improve on or rid of? If this story is bad, I can remove it.

I'm sorry for leaving you with that, but I just want to know your honest opinions. Please enjoy the story!

* * *

Before you begin...

**Note: Please excuse any kind of grammar, spelling, and/or other errors. Spell check is not always perfect and I may not catch everything in it.**

_Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis or any of its characters except my version of the plot and characters.

* * *

_

_-o-o- Chapter 3 -o-o-_

_Newfound Misery_

_-o-o--o-o--o-o--o-o--o-_

'Thoughts'

"Speaking"

* * *

The next few days passed quickly for the tennis-loving boy and soon reached the end of the week. He officially was debating whether going to Rikkai Dai in the first place was the best thing he should have done. Though the tennis team, he will secretly admit, the best he seen in a long time, he absolutely HATED the training schedule he was forced to go under. Sure, it was supposed to improve his tennis skills, but he was quite sure not even professionals performed at the extreme they were undergoing. Add that to the continuous piling of homework and it is literally doom for the seaweed haired boy.

Kirihara muttered under his breath as he stomped down the stairs, fully changed and everything. And he still had a hour before school started. That itself is a miracle for he usually woke up only fifteen to ten minutes before the bell rang. It was rare for him to actually be up and moving in the early morning.

_'Not like I had a choice,'_ he thought darkly as he plopped himself down at the table. Burying his head in his arms, he continued, _'Onee-chan needs to stop waking me up with a bucket of ice water! She needs to find herself a hobby ... or a pet... but I don't like cats...'_

Kirihara jolted from his thoughts when he felt a fist whack his head. Turning around in his chair, Kirihara glared at his older sister, who was innocently waiting for the beard to toast. "What was that for?!"

The female, older version of Kirihara looked at the younger boy with bored, green eyes. "I know that in your empty little head you're thinking that I need to do something else with my life." Kirihara's mouth dropped wide open at her.

"You can read my mind?!"

**Sweat drops.**

"I swear… Okaa-san needs to get you tested, Akaya," his sister mumbled, shaking her head. The younger boy glared again before 'humping' and turning away. She rolled her eyes and proceeded to take the freshly made toast out of the toaster.

Kirihara Chieko no doubt was the devil's older sister. She had the same curly black hair, but longer and emerald green eyes as him. Unlike her brother, though, Chieko works hard in her studies and dislikes all sports. Often times the two would fight with what was more important: school or sports. Moreover, it always ended with either their mother assigning them more chores or something getting broken - which was usually the flowerpot in the hallway or another vase. They lost track of how many vases they lost over the years. However, the two of them still have a close brother-sister relationship. Sometimes.

Glancing around the kitchen, Kirihara noticed that only he and Chieko were in the room. Their mother was not anywhere. Opening his mouth, he asked, "Did okaa-san already leave?" Chieko nodded, smearing butter on a piece of toast.

"Hai. But be happy; she decided to make you your special bento today," she confirmed. A grin grew on her brother's face.

"Really! Yes!" a hurt look crossed his sister's face.

Turning to him with a sad, teary eye expression, she whimpered, "What? Y-You don't like the bentos I make for you every morning? I work so hard on them!" she turned around, face in her hands. Kirihara gulped.

"N-No! They are good, onee-chan! Really!" he yelped. His mother would kill him if he made Chieko cry. He did not know why, but his mother favored his sister more than she did him. He had no idea of the exact reason, though. Instead, he pushed it off as him not paying attention to his schoolwork, which he should be doing. His mother wanted him to be successful in life and not spend his whole time on tennis. Too bad tennis **was** his life.

Chieko's face turned to face him, bottom lip trembling. The action sent Kirihara into a frenzy of apologies and complements, breaking on the urge of begging his sister to not start crying. Only when he a minute passed did his sister chuckle, halting the fury of words spewing out of his mouth.

"Jeez, Akaya, I'm kidding! Man, you're so gullible! That's, like, tenth time I tricked you with that same trick!" she laughed, walking over to ruffle Kirihara's messy hair.

"Shut up!" the seaweed head grumbling, slapping his sister's hand away. He so was not gullible! So what if he fell for the bento trick? He did not _fall_ for the 'there's-school-today-despite-being-Saturday' trick, 'do-my-chores-and-I'll-tell-you-something-amazing' stunt, 'believe-you-ripped-your-pants-when-bending-down' prank, or…

Ok, maybe he SOMETIMES was gullible.

"Watch the language, mister!" his sister scolded. Kirihara stuck his tongue out at him childishly. The older sibling chuckled again a bit at his response and walked over to him.

Chieko ruffled the younger Kirihara's hair again. "You're so cute! Sometimes," he blushed and proceeded to stuff his mouth with a piece of toast. Sitting down opposite of him, she added, "So, how's Rikkai Dai for you? Did you make any new friends yet?"

Kirihara's chewing slowed, concentrating on how he should respond. Truth was he still has not managed to make a single friend in his whole class, let along grade. His senpais would not even talk to him without some sort of fear inside their eyes. Nobody wanted to talk with him, not even some of the teachers. Everybody was scared of him.

_'Well, except the tennis regulars',_ he mused, swallowing. Out of the whole entire school, those six were the only ones that would dare willingly talk to him without any kind of fear in their eyes. Well, except for the buchou because he was often away monitoring the other club members. However, during the school day or after practice, he was by himself once again.

"Akaya?" Chieko asked, snapping Kirihara out of his thoughts. Looking up, he saw two identical green eyes peering at him worriedly. "Everything ok?"

He smirked and gave her a thumbs up. "Yup! A-ok!" remembering what she was asking before, he added, "School's great! But I hate homework!"

Chieko's expression did not change for a moment, scaring the boy for a moment. He did not need his sister to start worrying and fussing over him as if he was a baby. Inwardly he sighed in relief when his sister sighed and went back to eating her own breakfast. Starting off with making his older sister cry was not the way to start his day.

"Hm. Ok. Don't slack off in your schoolwork." The boy rolled his eyes.

"Ok! Ok! Go fuss over your boyfriend or something!" a piece of toast hit the boy in the face.

"Mind your elders," his sister retorted, blushing. "and stay out of my business! You're still just a cheeky brat."

"Hey!"

"Would you'd rather be called a cheeky baby?"

"…do I get to skip school?"

**WHACK!**

"OW!!!"

"There's your answer."

* * *

Leaving his house sometime later, Kirihara yawned again as he strolled down the street. His tennis bag slung over his shoulder and schoolbag on the other. He resisted the urge to rub the spot on his back where his sister literally kicked him to get to school. Though he considered his older sister as nice, she could be a real... Well, he did not know the right word for it since no one would tell him. Therefore, he will go with crazy-girl-that-loves-school-too-much-but-needs-to-live-life-a-little.

Stopping at a stoplight, the seaweed haired boy glanced around at the other Rikkai Dai students around him. Well, the students who decided to stand fifteen feet away from him. All of them were whispering and pointing at him, fear visible in their eyes once again. They did not know him and yet they acted like this! Glaring sharply at them, he crossed his arms and held his head high while crossing the street.

"People are stupid," the boy grumbled, kicking a can. They all make conclusions on things that do not even hold a shred of truth in them! Why could not anyone actually TALK to him and get to know him better?! He was getting fed up with all of this and was going to explode at the next time someone dared to---

His revenged filled thought ranting stopped short when he tripped over something and fell face first onto the pavement. His eyebrow twitched violently in anger. Jumping up, he turned around and snapped at whoever dared to trip the great Kirihara. "Watch it, you big pile of poo!"

A high pitch whimper answered him, confusing the boy. Looking around, Kirihara noticed that there was no one standing in front of him. Deciding to glance downwards, Kirihara found a small black and white puppy at his feet, cowering. Anger disappearing at the sight, the seaweed haired boy crouched down.

"Hey there, puppy!" he exclaimed excitedly, his love of dogs taking over. He tried to extend a hand to pet the small dog but stopped short when the said pup whimpered again and backed up. Frowning, he tried again. "Come on! I won't hurt you!"

The puppy stopped, bringing hope to the twelve-year-old boy. Stretching his hand again, Kirihara was successful this time to place his hand on the small dog. Petting the dog's head, he let out a giggle as the puppy yipped happily in agreement to his soft touch.

"See? That wasn't so bad," he teased. The puppy eyed him with brown eyes before sitting on his tiny butt, tail wagging happily. Kirihara rolled his eyes at the pup's behavior but continued to pet him. He then realized that he just tried to have a conservation with a dog.

"Great, I'm talking to a puppy. I'm going crazy," he moaned, head tilted down in shame. The puppy whimpered, upset with the lack of motion from Kirihara's hand. The small head bumped up repeatedly at the pale hand, impatient for the touch again. A smile reappeared on the boy's face as he resumed petting the dog. "Ok, ok!"

He did not know how long he continued petting the dog until he saw multiple large shadows come over the two of them. Glancing up, his green eyes widened as he saw the large, slim bodies of multiple dogs just feet away. And they were growling angrily at the boy.

The puppy barked at the larger dogs, running quickly to the one ahead of the pack. He yipped again as the alpha male gently licked the puppy a few times over the head. Pushing the puppy behind him, he turned his eyes back towards Kirihara, lips pulled back in a snarl.

Kirihara gulped, hands up as he slowly stood. Taking a step back, he stammered, "N-Now, now. I wasn't doing anything…" he stopped saying anything when he saw the dog bark something to the other dogs Then they started approaching him.

"Uh…" he began, clenching his bags tightly. "BYE!!!"

**"BARK! BARK!"**

"WAH!!! GET AWAY FROM ME!!!"

Kirihara could not believe how out of everyone in the whole world he was the one chosen to be chased by a pack of dogs that had a jealously issue. He now firmly believes that the whole world is after him… or aliens have come from outer space to mess with him. Alternatively, maybe they wanted to hang out with him!

…

…

…

He really should not have chocolate before bed anymore.

Sprinting past numerous people and students, he ignored the screams and laughter firing off around him. At the current moment, he had more things to worry about than his schoolmates did. Like a cat, though he completely hated those felines, he did not want to end up like dog food.

Running for who knows how long, relief flew to his eyes when he spotted a tree a couple of feet ahead of him. Using the last of his energy, he scrambled the remaining feet and scurried up the tree. His breath came hard and fast as he leaned against the tree bank, cringing as his ears filled with the obnoxious growls and barks of dogs.

Kirihara groaned, eyes closing. "Why me?!"

"Brat, what did you do to them?" a voice called out, making his eyes pop open. Squinting, the boy trapped in the tree caught the site of silver hair and purple hair in the distance among the sea of laughing students.

"Don't yell at me! Help me out!" Kirihara yelled, arms waving frantically. Niou looked at him, smirked, and then proceeded to walk the rest of the way to school with Yagyuu. "HEY!!!"

"Work it out yourself," he answered. The others added their own two-cents before following behind. The younger boy shouted out in protest before shortly giving up when nobody listened to him. Slouching against the tree, he pouted in anger.

_'I. Hate. My. Life.'_

Maybe school would be better for the boy.

* * *

No luck there, sadly.

"Kirihara-kun, what is the answer to this question?" said boy's math teacher asked, turning around after writing the equation on the board. "Kirihara-kun?"

"..." the boy answered, head buried deep into his arms. After a passerby finally took pity on him and got the dogs to stop chasing him, he had three minutes to make it to school on time. Sure, he just barely made it on time, thanks to his awesome tennis skills, but the boring lectures his teachers were giving had lured the boy to sleep.

Deep in dreamland, he was dreaming about becoming the star number one player in the world. He had just scored the winning point against the 'unbeatable' emperor Sanada and was listening to the crowds cheer for his victory. All the other tennis players were dancing around him, holding hands and chanting that he was the best. He was the king of the world! Nothing could stop him!

"KIRIHARA-KUN!"

**SLAM!**

"Fifteen! Eighty-two! PIE!" the seaweed head yelped, jolting the boy from his dream. He fell backwards from the sudden action, tipping his chair and forcing the boy onto the ground. Chibi tennis balls running danced around his head, dazed as he listened to the sounds of his classmates' laughter.

HIs teacher stormed up to the fallen boy, shoes echoing loudly against the tile floor. Kirihara gulped as his sensei's face appeared in front of him, multiple veins over his red face. Crossing his arms, he hissed, "Kirihara-kun! That is the third time this week! My class is to teach you the basics of how to perform simple---"

Interrupting the furious ranting, Kirihara jumped to his feet and bowed quickly. "G-Gomen! It won't happen again!" He mentally crossed his fingers, praying to Kami that his teacher would buy the excuse.

But like how the rest of his day has been going, today the world was seemingly against him.

A boy in the back of the class snorted. "Him? NOT sleep in class? That's like him trying to beat the Three Demons!" The class erupted in laughter once again, angering the boy to pivot around and glare.

Their sensei did not find it amusing. Turning his attention to the boy, he snapped, "Watari-kun! Mind your manners! Do you want---"

"Like you know anything! You're too much of a chicken to even try!" he retorted, pointing a finger at the boy and forgetting his sensei was right next to him. He had seen the boy at tennis practice before and in his mind was probably one of the worst players in the club. "Besides, even if you did, you couldn't get one point against them!" The other boy stood up and glared. Other students who had agreed with the other boy threw their own comments in as he spoke. Nobody noticed the ignored sensei's face begin to turn red.

"You sure you aren't talking about yourself? Who _cried_ after challenging them themselves and ran away like a baby?" Kirihara's face darkened, eyes flashing red for a second before disappearing just as quickly. He took a step towards his so-called classmate. His fists were clenched tightly, the knuckles almost white.

"Why you---"

_**"ENOUGH!"**_ their sensei suddenly shouted, ceasing the class at once. Kirihara, the boy, and the rest all stared at him, watching the ragged breaths he breathed in. No one dared to utter a sound as their teacher fixed his ugly, black glasses before he gave them the coldest looks anyone had ever received from a teacher.

"I have _never_ had such unacceptable behavior in my class until now," he said loudly, walking back towards the front of the class, his footsteps sounding louder than ever. "You are students of Rikkai Dai Fuzhou, not some kiddy playground! All of you should be suspended for such behavior!" Cold sweat appeared on everyone's forehead, fearing the worst.

He turned back towards the class when he reached the front, eyeing Kirihara. "And you, Kirihara-kun, should know better than to cause more problems after starting this mess off in the first place!"

"But sensei, it's---!" he protested, only to shut up with the combined looks of said teacher and students.

"However, your classmates also decided to participate in this foolishness and therefore must be punished as well," his beady eyes swept around the rest of the class. He turned his back towards the class, unaware of the numerous hatred scowls thrown in Kirihara's direction. "That's why all of you will receive after school detention for one week as well as extra homework assigned from me. No one is excused from this. And, in all my years of teaching, I am sorry to say that I am very disappointed in all of you."

HIs speech finished, the math teacher walked out of the room, hoping some air will cool his temper. He ignored the immediate cries of protest that erupted the second he stepped out, all of the fury directed towards the junior tennis player. At this moment, he was not in any position or mood to try and even quiet the class in his current state.

Kirihara was livid as well, blocking out all the noise around him. Everyone around him was yelling at him now, blaming him for giving them detention for something they 'took' no part in. Nasty comments were spat at him from boys and girls alike, all not caring that he was not the one that forced them to have detention. A few students he spotted were not yelling at him, but were not helping him either. He wasn't the one that dared to provoked him when he was already in hot water, but no one was yelling at that boy. Everything was apparently _his_ fault.

"You _**BAKA**_! Look at what you did!"

"My parents are going to kill me for getting detention! Thanks a lot!"

"Why out of the whole grade did we get stuck with YOU?!"

"Couldn't you have just kept your damn mouth shut?!"

"Everybody's right about you – a snot nose brat that only likes to get others in trouble!"

"Do everyone a favor will you and GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!!!"

Teeth gritted, Kirihara slammed his fist onto his desk, ignoring the ear-piercing sound of wood being crushed underneath his hand. The shrieks and yells wavered for a second but picked up soon again. The few who took no part in the blaming gave him sympatric and pity glances at him. It only made it harder for him to fight back the urge to explode all his bubbling anger at them.

However, even with all that anger, there was that tiny piece of Kirihara's heart that could not help but feel deeply saddened by his classmates' refusal of him. That feeling that no matter how hard he tried to hide just would not go away. Even among the desires to punch the other boy in the face or snap at the roaring class, it would not go away. He tried to believe wholeheartedly that he had no reason to have that feeling. However, not even the devil can hide the longing to feel they belonged somewhere.

Because deep down inside him, he just wanted someone to be his friend and accept him for whom he was. Not some kind of demon. But sadly, everywhere he goes no one was willingly to try.

Remembering the conversation this morning with his sister, a sad grin appeared on his face. The volume of the class increased, having mistaken his grin, but he paid no attention to them. Maybe it was that one lie to her that turned his whole day upside down. However, what would he have told her instead?

_'Friends, onee-chan? I _**have** _none.'

* * *

_

Please don't hurt me! –hides behind couch–

I kept thinking when I first started this story about how the other students first thought of Kirihara and his personality. I'm pretty sure that a lot of people didn't like him because of how he acted on the courts, despite his childlike attitude. However, I wonder how the other regulars will react to this. –shifty eyes-–

Anyways, it led to this chapter being written. I hope that I didn't kill any of your interest in this story for writing this. The next chapter won't be out for a bit because school is getting a bit hectic and that I need to update my other story. Also, chapter 4 needs a bit of editing to be perfect.

If you can, please review. Anything from criticism to future ideas for later chapters will be accepted.

Have a good morning/afternoon/night!

Sayonara!

*~Kira~*


	4. Dealing with Rumors

Hiya! It's been, what, more than two weeks since I last updated? Sorry, sorry! School's being a real pain and I have to prepare for two upcoming piano exams. x.x I'm going to get myself killed trying to balance all of this. Sigh.

Shortest chapter I have ever written so far, I believe. Like I promised, this chapter is focused more with the regulars. However, not all of them appears. I am somehow more bias towards the other regulars than the Demon Three. Don't worry! I won't forget them but just don't expect them to make a big, grand entrance here. Kirihara... well... you'll see.

Thanks to **Full Manga Alchemist**, **The Devil Inside**, **Hiroen Nnir**, **VampyBlood24**, **LellowOssapus**, **Shinbei21**, and all the readers that left anonymous reviews. Thank you for all your support! Special thanks to **VampyBlood24** for helping me out this chapter and giving me a few new ideas. Arigatou!

Some of the characters may seem a bit OOC when they speak and I apologize for that ahead of time. Hopefully it isn't too bad and won't stop you from reading. If you catch any, suggestions on how to make them more in character are welcome.

Enjoy!

* * *

Before you begin...

**Note: Please excuse any kind of grammar, spelling, and/or other errors. Spell check is not always perfect and I may not catch everything in it.**

_Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis or any of its characters except my version of the plot and characters.

* * *

_

_-o-o-o- Chapter 4 -o-o-o-_

_Dealing with Rumors_

_-o-o--o-o--o-o--o-o--o--o-_

'Thoughts'

"Speaking"

* * *

Jackal and Marui walked past their fellow classmates as they strolled down the hallway, heading towards the lunchroom. The two were officially on the tennis team despite being only second years. In the past, it was most often third years getting the regular spots on the Rikkaidai team. Third-years weren't picked out of bias but because they had more experience and time to hone their skills. However, the Brazilian and sweets boy were one of the best doubles teamwork the school had ever seen. Therefore, it was no surprise that they had easily beaten the previous doubles pairs and earned themselves the right to be team regulars.

Walking, the two team regulars could hear the badly kept secretive gossip of their fellow classmates. Many were huddled in small groups of two or three, openly whispering. Some of them talked as if they were having a conservation that was practically made to be overheard by others. That particular topic everyone was focusing on was about the kid that had seaweed hair and turn himself into a devil on the courts. And, out of all the things said, none of them were pretty.

"You know that first year brat, Kirihara? I heard he was sleeping in class again!"

"Again? Cocky bastard probably thinks he can do whatever he wants because he's as good as the regulars!"

"Pft, it's no wonder his class hates him. From what someone told me, Higa-sensei got pissed at him and gave the whole class extra homework and detention!"

"Who even likes him in the first place? He's a demon! Did you see the way he plays?!"

"My onee-san told me that he sent someone to the hospital when several broken bones just by looking at him funny!"

"How did he even get into this school?! Rikkaidai doesn't accept devils!"

The Brazilian tennis player frowned at all the outrageous comments targeting Kirihara. Ever since he came here, the gossip had got wider and crazier with each passing day. And with each new event, they got bigger and bigger. After the first day of school, everyone in the school, including staff, knew Kirihara's name. When he challenged Sanada to a rematch earlier this week, the 'devil' began appearing where ever his name was mentioned. The day after right after his first official tennis practice with the club, numerous illogical rumors popped up. And, after the incident that happened just this morning, hate talk and whispers were rapidly making its way around the student body.

Jackal was amazed Kirihara was still who he was during practice. Personally, he saw Kirihara as his equal in tennis despite his faults and being his junior. He respected Kirihara for his determination to reach his goal, no matter what attitude the freshman displayed. It was true that he was cocky, arrogant, and certainly violent but he acted a lot like a little kid most of the time. All of the downfalls of Kirihara's personality didn't give them the right to ridicule the boy.

Marui saw it the somewhere along the same lines. "Boy, things are really getting out of control, eh Jackal?" he asked, popping his strawberry gum. His friend nodded.

"Yes. The school has been out of control since Kirihara-kun joined," he agreed. No other words wre exchanged, the surrounding chatter filling in the air for them. The two continued on, reaching the sky bridge that connected to the main building. Before they reached the other side, though, they stopped to see what everyone was whispering and pointing at. All of their eyes were focused on the building directly across from the bridge. The one for the first years.

A short kid with messy, seaweed hair was sitting in one of the empty classrooms, doing work. No one, not even the teacher, was there with him with him. The kid was sitting there along, quickly scribing down things on a piece of paper. Some crumpled balls of paper were scattered beside him. A math book laid out in front of him.

Someone snorted, drawing attention away from the 'devil' child and towards them. It was a tall second-year student with shaggy, brown hair curled at the shoulders. His dark purple eyes were focused on Kirihara. He had his arms crossed against his chest, eyes narrowed with a dark light. "Pft, look at that. Stupid kid can't even do his work on time." The shorter male next to him nodded.

"Yeah, he doesn't even belong here. Doesn't know his place," he added. His friend smirked.

"Damn brat sure doesn't. Devils should go back to the hell they came from," he announced firmly, the two bursting out into laughter at the cruel joke they said. Others around them laughed as well, not wanting to feel like a supporter of the freshman. Few to none took in the consideration of laughing at the unknowing boy. Said boy had his hands in his hair as he frustrating tried to figure out the problem. Except Jackal and Marui.

The two approached the brown hair guy and his friend who was disrespecting their kouhai. "Inoue-kun, you're saying untrue, unjust things," Jackal warned, displeased with the behavior a fellow classmate was showing. "You should not be saying---"

"And I should listen to you, why again?" Inoue, the taller one, interrupted, rolling his eyes. "Who cares what I say about that stupid kid? All he did was ruin our reputation, thinking he's all great and stuff! He hasn't got a single damn drop of respect for his elders and already made us look like weaklings!" his friend nodded in agreement. Other students around them were quiet, listening in to the argument.

Jackal frowned again. Was this really how others saw Kirihara? Truly in pure hate? Did they even try to look deeper to the reasons behind his actions? "He did so unintentionally, Inoue-san," the regular tried to reason. "Kirihara-kun is just a kid. He doesn't know all the consequences of his actions most, if not all, the time.

"Oh yeah?" Inoue crackled, laughing dryly. His friend glanced at him warily, unsure of what Inoue was finding so funny. Other students began fidgeting from where they stood, not knowing what to do now expect to listen. The argument in front of them was turning ugly quickly.

Jabbing a sharp finger unexpectedly at Jackal's chest, Inoue hissed, "I'm surprise you can even stick up for the pathetic runt, _**Jackal**_. I thought you out of everyone here would see just how evil that brat is."

Marui stopped chewing his gum. Nobody, no matter how big or small, got away with messing with his friends. Apart from his sweets, tennis, and family, his friends were one of the most important things to him. The verdict is still out on where his relationship with Kirihara laid, but the red-head considered them to at least be a little closer than the average senpai and kouhai. That was good enough for now to Marui.

Separating his teammate from the other second-year, Marui interjected, "Hey, hey. No need to get personal, right? I believe we already established the fact a lot of people hate the brat." Inoue smirked, arms crossed in victory. Marui's eyes narrowed as he continued, his attention focused solely on the brunette. "However, you're really crossing the line here." Inoue's shorted friend scoffed.

"Great! Another fucking supporter!" he exclaimed, throwing his hands up into the air. "What the hell do you guys even see in that fucking, stupid, annoying prick?!"

"Yeah!" someone the crowd squawked. "What do you know about him?!"

Other students began yelling their own opinions, finally seeing an opportunity to voice their own thoughts on Kirihara and what Marui and Jackal had to say about him. More than ninety percent of the crowd demanded to know a kid with violent tendencies had the support of two of the tennis regulars. He almost tried to kill the mighty emperor of the school by smashing a ball right at his face! They all felt that if anyone had the right to hate Kirihara the most it would be the regulars.

The Brazilian rubbed his forehead, feeling a headache forming. This was getting way too far out of hand. His patience and sanity were stretching thinner and thinner the longer this argument continued. "I don't know Kirihara-kun very well at all. But---" No one let him finished. His one sentence was the only thing needed to fuel the next fury of words.

"See! You don't know him at all!"

"What reason do you have to even _**like**_ that brat, huh?!

"Just admit you hate him like the rest of us!"

"What makes you support that idiot anyways?!"

"That boy is nothing but trouble!"

Marui looked at them expressionlessly, his patience on the verge of snapping. "And that gives you the right to diss someone you don't know anything about?" Inoue exploded, unable to believe how the two of them **still** didn't get what over three-fourths of the school already got.

"How can you even support that... that... thing!" he spat back. "He shouldn't even be in this school! Or on the tennis team for that matter! I don't understand why Sanada-san---"

"I do what?" another voice spoke up from behind him suddenly, sending the crowd of students fleeing towards the nearest door. Inoue and his friend didn't scattered with the rest of the stampede, being frozen in spot. Only Jackal and Marui didn't seem terrified of the new arrival. Jackal was in fact relieved that he had shown up while Marui greatly relaxed.

The red-head blew a bubble. "Hey there, Sanada. How are 'ya?" The tall, stoic man remained silent, not even acknowledging the greeting. He was too busy _looking_ at the top of the heads of Inoue and his friend, the two who hadn't moved an inch.

"Well?" Sanada questioned again, the question sounding more like an order. The ignored sweets boy hid a snicker behind his bubble, anticipating what was about to happen.

Inoue slowly turned around, along with his friend, to face the stoic man. Sweat formed at the top of his head, throat choked as he tried to muster up the courage to say something, if anything, to him. Just standing in the presence of the might Emperor was enough to petrify anyone for life. "A-Ah! Sanada-san! I-It's... um... not what you... uh... think!" An eyebrow rose.

"And what would I be thinking?" he asked, the underlying tone carrying a much darker message. Inoue gulped, trying hard not to wet himself in the pants. His friend was very close to it, visibly shaking and trembling in the near presence of the emperor. The shorter boy's eyes were slightly damp as well, as if fear was threatening tears to fall.

"W-Well," Inoue began, swallowing hard. "it's that k-kid, Kirihara. He s-should have never been able to j-join the cl---" he shut up when he felt two ice beams aimed towards him.

"I believe that you have no say in that matter," Sanada reprimanded, sending more tremors through both. "You should be more worried about how your **skills**, especially your stamina, is below even that an elementary schooler has. And you, Yamada, are unable to perform well near the net. At Rikkaidai, we are winners, not losers." Their heads hung low in shame, embarrassment, and anger. Never had they been told so bluntly their weaknesses by another player without said offender getting hurt in some way. Always the offender was 'punished' by them. This time, however, none of them stood a chance against Sanada.

Marui leaned against the railing, popping and blowing another bubble. He was clearly and evidently enjoying the show before him. "Hm, why don't you give them some drills now, Sanada? I'm sure they wouldn't mind running some laps to improve their stamina." Two dirty glares were sent in the redheads direction and a shake of the head from another.

"Shut up!" Inoue barked, cringing back when Sanada ordered him silent with another look.

"One-hundred fifty laps," the stoic teen announced without skipping a beat. Inoue and Yamada's jaws dropped to the floor.

"NANI?!"

"Woo~" Marui whistled, bubblegum retracting back inside his mouth. "That's harsh." Jackal shushed him.

Sanada's eyebrows rose again. "Why are you still here? Unless you want to do that and the extra one hundred during practice, I suggest you start running now."

"H-HAI!" the two 'eep'ed, running around the emperor in direction of the route towards the track. Two trails of dust were left in their route as their figures got smaller. Shouts and screams from inside could he heard from innocent students pushed around from the terrified duo. There was also a loud explosion from one of the rooms in the science hall, but nothing too serious. It was the screaming girls screaming bloody murder about runaway rats that echoed throughout the school the rest of the day.

Once the noises died down to a slight murmur from the sky bridge, Sanada turned towards Marui and Jackal. His cold, firm expression still remained on his face. Arms crossed, he barked, "What are you two doing here?"

Marui twitched. "Dude, you're kidding right? You really think that will work on _**us**_? Even a monkey could see the difference."

"Are you trying to say that I'm a monkey?" the offended man remarked, looking at the redhead. "Do you want to run with them as well? You need to so you don't eat so many sweets."

**PULSE VEIN.**

"Oi!" Marui shouted, glaring. "I said stop it already! We already know it's you! And sweets are good!"

Sanada looked him dead in the eye. "I order you to do one thousand laps," he ordered. A light shone in his eyes as he saw the redhead pulse multiple veins clench and unclench his hands furiously, trying hard not to strangle the taller man. "Now."

**TWITCH.**

"Give it up! Jeez!" Marui growled, smacking his gum angrily. "No way am I running _**one thousand laps**_! If you want to do it, do it yourself!" Sanada's eyes glinted again.

"Then no more chewing gum in school or at practice," he declared to Marui's obvious disobedience. The said red-head's gum chewing stopped immediately, shocked at such a statement. Jackal face palmed, wandering if his sanity had finally died and gone to heaven.

...

...

...

...

**PULSE VEIN.**

"GIVE IT A REST!!! IT DOESN'T WORK ON ME!!!"

Jackal sighed, shaking his head. If his sanity was still here after everything that just happened in the last seven minutes, it would be a miracle. "Niou, you shouldn't try to kill others under false orders. If Sanada finds out you're impersonating him, you'll be the one running laps." 'Sanada' smirked at the doubles player, ignoring the said player's fuming partner.

"Hey, it's their own fault, puri~" the teen answered, taking off his 'hair'. Silver, spiky hair replaced the black-blue hair he had on previously. "Should've known better." Marui glared.

"And doesn't that mean you STOP when they'd gone?" Niou shrugged, making the boy twitch again. Despite being friends, that didn't stop the trickster from always trying to find ways to prank them. And with each one, the next got more and more annoying. Maybe it was for that reason many wondered why Jackal didn't have any gray hairs. Or it could be that he had no hair in the first place.

Jackal sighed again, tired. "Guys, stop it." Niou held up his arms innocently, his smirk saying 'Hey, I didn't do anything'. The read-head rolled his eyes and mumbled something under his breath before turning away.

Marui found himself glancing back towards Kirihara when he turned away. The boy was glaring angrily at the work in front of him, as if daring it to solve itself. His head dropped in defeat ten seconds later when the answer didn't magically appear in front of him. The sweets loving player chuckled.

"Poor kids doesn't seem to like math."

"Or any other subject," Niou added, his Sanada disguise discarded. He leaned against the railing a few feet to the left of Marui, getting a closer look at the freshman he constantly tricked easily. "Only class he doesn't is Japanese and P.E."

Jackal frowned, remembering all the gossip and false rumors being spread around about the seaweed haired kid. "He must be really lonely, having no one actually respect him or treat him equally. Many are instead pretty scared of him, in fact." Marui shrugged.

"You can't blame anyone, though. Brat's attitude and actions is bound to anger some, if not everyone's, pride. He was actually one of the few that could hold his own against Sanada longer than most. And, the kid still has the will to fight even after losing that bad. Many are probably jealous of his daringness and skills." Niou snickered.

"Never knew you could have such thoughtful thoughts," the trickster commented, popping Marui's large bubble with a finger. The boy blinked as his face was covered with sticky, pink pieces of gum. He scowled at the silver haired teen and twitched again.

"Hey! I'm a genius! 'Course I would know all of that!" Marui retorted, annoyed that no one would listen to him when he said he was a genius. How many times did he have to say it? Marui Bunta was the genius of Rikkaidai! Niou snickered again, pissing the boy off further.

The bystander Brazilian rubbed his head, agitated by the seemingly never-ending arguments the two got in. Rather than using words, the male used one of his rarely used glares on the two to get to shut up. Though Jackal could glare when he wanted to, it was a very, very uncommon thing, which it made it all the more effective when he decided to pull it out. Niou crossed his arms, lips twitching as Marui glared one last glare before looking away, huffing. The peacemaker sighed.

The three stood in silence, not looking at each other. Their eyes, however, found themselves drawn back to the classroom Kirihara remained in. His pencil tapped rapidly against the desk. He was still trying to find the solution to the problem. But by the looks of it, it wasn't coming anytime soon.

Suddenly, the tapping stopped. A wide grin grew on his face. Bending forwards, Kirihara began writing something furiously, eager to finish. Once done, the freshman jumped up, his chair falling over from his frantic movements. Racing up to the teacher's desk, Kirihara slammed his finished work down. Finally done with the painful, tear-jerking, dreaded thing called math work, Kirihara did a little victory dance to celebrate. Unknowingly, he was the cause of his three senpais' laughter outside, all amused by his obvious childish behavior.

"That kid sure is weird," Marui observed, chewing his bubblegum. "but he doesn't look like a devil when he's like this." Jackal nodded.

"No one, though, probably believes that. I haven't seen anyone who approached him unless necessary, pinning his behavior on the court as his true personality." A light bulb went off in Niou's head, an idea forming in his head. Smirking, he dropped his arms around his fellow teammates, a light twinkling in his eyes as they looked at him in confusion.

The two didn't like the look he was giving them. Well, Jackal didn't. He already knew with experience that whatever Niou was scheming was never up to any good. On the contrary, Marui was curious on what the infamous school trickster had up his sleeve this time. "You got something, Niou?" the man's smirk grew larger.

"Let's prove if this little 'devil' really is a devil or not. I heard that he eats on the rooftop during lunch..."

* * *

Hm... I wonder what Niou has in plan for Kirihara? All I can say is that it's called _**Forming Bonds.**_ Any guesses on what's going to happen? Guess we'll just have to wait for the next chapter~

For the next chapter, it most likely won't be out for awhile. I really, really need to update my other story and make it the last few weeks of school. Plus, it needs A LOT of editing.

I should probably go and finish my other story now... or start on my homework. Eh... Anyone want to do _Romeo and Juliet_ homework? Haha, never mind.

Anyways, please continue to support _The Devil Prince_! Reviews are greatly appreciated and loved!

Sayonara!

*~Kira~*


	5. Forming Bonds

Hm… only three days since my last update. I thought that I would get this up later but I guess not. However, it's the last chapter I currently have on my flash drive. I don't have a planned outline of the rest of the story, just brief ideas. Everything after I don't know when it's going to be updated. Best just to get this posted now, I guess. However, I didn't have it proof-read by **ChocoholicAddict22** yet so parts may be OOC. Just a heads up.

Special thanks to **amy0213**, **-doy . doy -** (sorry for the spaces, but your name wouldn't appear without them), **nejisakura**, and **ChocoholicAddict22**.

Please enjoy!

* * *

Before you begin...

**Note: Please excuse any kind of grammar, spelling, and/or other errors. Spell check is not always perfect and I may not catch everything in it.**

_Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis or any of its characters except my version of the plot and characters.

* * *

_

_-o-o- Chapter 5 -o-o-_

_Forming Bonds_

_-o-o--o-o--o-o--o-o--o-_

'Thoughts'

"Speaking"

* * *

Kirihara breathed a sigh of relief when he finished the math work he slept through. It had luckily taken him only half of the lunch period to finish. Out of everything he went through so far, that was the best thing that had happened. After the detention incident, everyone was unsurprising shunning him once again. A few looked at him in pity but turned soon away when their friends dragged them away. All the other teachers paid extra attention to him, trying to keep the 'Devil' under 'control' while avoiding eye contact. The second the bell rang for lunch, everyone fled from the classroom in a matter of seconds. They were all eager to get away from the infamous freshman and treat the boy like dirt. The shunned boy couldn't even try to eat his lunch yet because his math teacher assigned him to finish the class work before he eats. If he didn't… Kirihara didn't want to find out.

Scrambling out of the room with a bento in hand eager to eat, Kirihara headed down the hallway. No one was waiting for him. He hadn't managed to make any friends his own age at all since he came to Rikkai Dai. The seaweed head tried a few times to interact with others but no one was willing to put in any effort in return. Always the person used whatever method they could to get away or someone dragged them away. It was times like this he wished she was here. However, their actions didn't bother him. Much.

Walking down the hall, the seaweed head plastered a grin on his face. He ignored all the dirty looks and whispers his classmates were throwing at him, focusing on getting to the rooftop as quickly as possible. His goal was to become the number tennis player in Japan and then the world. He was not going to let them get to him. As a Kirihara, to achieve one's goal is to push and crush all obstacles that come in one's path. So, he was not going to let anyone get to him by any means necessary.

Climbing up two sets of stairs, Kirihara pulled open the rooftop door. He would've have preferred the tree orchard near the tennis courts but he didn't want to have to deal with all the weak players who couldn't get over their jealously at him. They only hated him because he was better than most people at tennis. The rooftop was deserted, like always, and was therefore the place where he could eat in peace. Though, there was one problem – the rooftop didn't have an undercover area. If it started raining or the weather turned bad, then he would have nowhere to eat. Only the hostile cafeteria would be his last option. It didn't take a genius to see that would be the worst decision for anyone to make.

Marching proudly, he headed towards his usual empty bench and plopped himself down. Rubbing his hands together hungrily, Kirihara pried the top of his bento open and grinned. Apart from the end of the school day being his favorite time of the day, lunch was a close second. Inside contained all his favorite dishes his mother had graciously prepared for him.

Alongside the rice, there was a nice portion of leftover barbecue chicken from his dinner last night, something his mom rarely makes. The only fruit that he truly enjoyed, cherries, were there as well. Some stir fry vegetables sat in the corner, next to the cherries. For desert, something that he hardly ever eats since his older sister devours it all usually before he even sees it. An imagawayaki **(1)**. Though it was not something usually seen in a bento, it was one of Kirihara's favorite things to eat whenever he could.

Saying the customary "Itadakimasu", Kirihara picked up his chopsticks and took a piece of chicken. Dropping it into his mouth, he chewed happily, savoring the piece of meat. Most of the time his sister would make his lunch because their mom was didn't have enough time to make his lunch in the morning most of the time. Whenever he had hers, it always consisted of three salmon favored onigirls, a few pieces of meat or shrimp, an anpan **(2)**, and a small dessert. Not that he didn't appreciate his sister for making him lunch every day, but he preferred to have something different now and then. And, his sister had a strange and creepy tendency to add in chill sauce to a random piece of his lunch.

A small breeze brought the sounds of laughter from the ground below, his fellow classmates eating alongside their friends. Scooping up a piece of rice, he was forcibly reminded of the silence around him. His happy mood began to dampen as he once again saw no one he could talk to or laugh with. It reminded him of the time when he actually had friends.

Contrary to what others believe, Kirihara actually had friends back in elementary school. Every day during lunchtime he would have at least a few of his classmates sit and eat lunch with him. After school they would hang out with each others' houses and go to the arcade. They shared their love for videogames, sleeping, and just plain goofing off. However, only he had the passion for tennis. And that was what led to him losing all his friends.

Having heard of the Three Demons joining Rikkaidai last year and leading the tennis team to a National's victory, Kirihara had made it his goal to get into the school. He kept ranting on and on to his friends that he was going to get into the school. The only obstacle he faced was passing the entrance exam. His friends believed he was aiming too high, knowing all too well what his grades were like. They told him to give it up and just follow them to the public school the rest of them were attending. There was little faith in seeing Kirihara pass the entrance exam.

Kirihara refused to accept defeat. He got his sister to tutor him in every single subject, determined to get into Rikkaidai. For over several months he studied like he had never done before. Night after night he had his sister force him to learn the material he should have already known. His friends held their skepticism the entire way. Due to their conflicts of interest, their friendship became tense.

None of them, not even Kirihara, could believe it when the seaweed head actually managed to scrape by and get into the school. Once the results came, he rushed to tell his friends about it. However, they didn't take it the way he was expecting them to. Instead, arguments broke out between them, the worst any of them had ever gotten into. When they were finally able to talk normally again, Kirihara was given two options: either refuse the acceptance and keep his friends or accept it and lose his friends for good.

In the end, Kirihara decided to pursue his dream and leave his friends. It's been almost two months since he last talked to them. The last time he saw them were when they were hanging out their old hangout – the arcade. The minute they saw him, they left the arcade. And as they passed him, he couldn't find any trace of remorse on their faces.

_'Hmp! I don't need anybody!'_ the boy thought to himself, bitterly remembering how everyone else treated and shunned him. He blocked out all of his memories of that morning from entering his head. There was no point rethinking that over anymore. Taking another piece of rice, he threw it angrily and stubbornly into his mouth. _'I'll be number one and prove them wrong!'_

"Number one of what, puri~?" a familiar voice from behind him suddenly asked. Startled, the boy jumped up and nearly lost his seat and lunch. He hadn't realized he had actually yelled his last thought out loud. Turning around, he glared darkly at the chuckling silver haired teen.

"You!" he snapped, pointing a finger at the trickster. "What do you want?!" He fought to keep the heat to escaping from his checks. Having so easily been scared like that was embarrassing for the proud boy. Also, he wanted to hide the sour disappointment of having to move away from the only quiet lunch spot in the whole school. Knowing Niou, his favorite spot would be ruined soon enough.

Niou simply smirked at the seaweed head, causing said boy to twitch. Leaning over Kirihara, he whispered, "Just wanted you to give me something..." the boy blinked for a moment, confused. Something clicked in his head when he finally took what his senpai said, and that their faces were really close at the moment.

"WHA?! S-STAY AWAY FROM ME!!!" he shrieked, falling backwards off his seat and onto the concrete ground. His lunch was about to meet the same fate until Niou grabbed it at the last minute.

The bento stealer Niou laughed at how ridiculous Kirihara looked with his limps sprayed in awkward positions around the bench. Alongside with Marui, who was standing near him, the two were highly amused at Kirihara's latest stunt. Jackal, standing a bit further back, sighed. Boy being laughed at groaned from the ground, trying to get the dancing stars out of his eyes. Another injury to add to his already large list.

Rikkaidai's trickster placed a piece of Kirihara's lunch into his mouth as the boy slowly untangled himself. "Didn't expect you to take it like that, brat."

**PULSE VEIN.**

"Shut up!" he snapped, jumping to his feet. "And give me back my lunch!" Before he even finished, he lunged for his precious lunch and his senpai holding it. However, Niou held it above his head, way out of Kirihara's reach. Narrowing his eyes, Kirihara pounced for it. The problem was that each time he tried Niou would stretch his arm just a bit more and take it out of the freshman's reach. The freshman cursed his height.

"Nah, you gotta grow first," Niou teased, popping a cherry into his mouth. He rolled it around his tongue as Kirihara growled and tried to tackle the bento prisoner instead. Too bad the thief had pretty good reflexes. Kirihara instead almost collided with the innocent bystander Jackal. Second attempt: failed.

Steam practically flew out of Kirihara's ears as Niou laughed at his second failure. Stopping next to Marui, he offered the redhead a piece of the stolen lunch. "That all you got, brat? You're never gonna get it back that way," another piece of chicken went into his mouth and a bite of the imagawayaki into Marui's. "and this is a pretty good lunch."

"Eh, it's ok," his companion added, chewing. "The imagawayaki's ok, but needs to be a lot sweeter."

**Sweat drops.**

"Not everything has to be insanely sweet, Marui," Jackal deadpanned. Marui pouted and turned away, taking another bite of the 'under sugared' pastry. Niou poked his head and smirked.

"Sweets monster."

"HEY!"

Kirihara growled at them, both from his throat and stomach. "Give. It. Back!" If they didn't know better, the three second-years would have thought he was going to stomp his foot and thrown a tantrum. Unless he already was, that is. It was pretty hard to distinguish Kirihara from being a middle school student to a little kid. It if wasn't for the uniform, they would have thought he was the latter.

The boy charged at the two again, only to have them easily sidestep the rampaging boy. Niou gave him a sly look as Kirihara stared murderously at him. "Still gotta do better than that, kid." The bento was handed to Marui when the boy tried again to grab it, mocking the boy. Tick marks began appearing on the seaweed head's head.

Marui laughed and took another piece out of the dwindling lunch box. When Kirihara tried again, he handed it back off to Niou, who also took another piece. The two continued the pattern, teasing their kouhai as he chased them around the rooftop, hungry and desperate for his lunch. The two didn't attempt to give it to Jackal, knowing all too well the Brazilian would end their game. Jackal was therefore left o watch in pity as Kirihara chased them repeatedly over the rooftop.

However, the boy was in no mood to play games. Today just continued kept turning crappier and crappier for the boy. First, he got chased by a gang of dogs after he accidently tricked over one that morning. Then there was forgetting to do his history homework. During P.E. he shot the winning goal in soccer, but into the wrong net. And the worst part of the day so far was getting dissed from his whole entire class, extra math homework, and detention for a whole week. Add all of that to losing the one thing that could've made his day more tolerable and you got a very, very, very pissed Kirihara. Nothing was in his favor today and he had just about had enough.

Jackal, sensing the murdering, dark aura of Kirihara, decided to try and save the poor boy from any more misfortune. "Guys, leave him alone. Haven't you already done enough?" Marui snorted.

"Why? If he wants to be number one, he should be able to his bento back pretty quickly," the redhead answered, eyeing the panting boy.

Niou added, "If he can't then he has no reason to even stay here."

The trickster's words pierced something in Kirihara's heart. His hands clenched for a second time that day. NO one ever said he didn't belong somewhere. If he didn't belong somewhere, that was HIS decision, not some pretty boy masquerading as some sociopathic jokester! He wasn't some little kid that everyone bossed around! Kirihara Akaya is the best tennis player the world wil soon know about! No one could tell him otherwise! Eyes silt in fury and burning rage, he shot off after them.

_**"I WILL BE NUMBER ONE!!! JUST YOU WAIT!!!"**_

Everything that happened next was a blur. Marui, who was the one holding possession of the bento, saw the boy running once again towards him. His eyes had widened at the speed the boy had taken off at; it was at least twice the speed he had been using before. Seeing that he wouldn't be able to reach Niou in time, he decided to throw the almost empty bento. He was confident that Kirihara wouldn't be able to catch it in time. With the speed the boy was running at, he would end up crashing or almost colliding with the redhead, unable to turn the opposite direction quick enough. It would be a pity, yes, but the game had to continue.

Oh how wrong he was.

Landing on his right foot the second Marui tossed the bento, Kirihara watched his precious lunch run away again. Having no desire to have it end up in Niou's hands, rather than landing on his foot his next step, he tilted his body forward and landed on his toes. Brushing past the startled redhead, he outstretched his arm out, desperate for proving he was meant to be here, he wasn't somebody who let others push him around, mock him. Someone who isn't a coward, but a winner and rebel.

And his name is Kirihara Akaya.

Three shocked teens stared at Kirihara as the boy grasped the bento just inches before Niou. The trickster barely ducked in time as Kirihara's momentum threw him at the silver head. His blue eyes caught Kirihara barreling towards the fence. Plus the one hundred foot drop waiting for him.

"You idiot!" Marui shouted. "Look out!"

Shocked green eyes stared at the fence in confusion before the owner of said eyes finally realized his situation. Turning his body slightly, Kirihara stomped his left root into the ground, two feet away from the edge. Acting unconsciously, he kicked off towards the right with as much power as he could. The tip of his nose was just inches away from the fence and almost his unfortunate death.

Sliding to a halt, the three second-years watched as the seaweed haired freshman breathed heavily, hands tightly clutching his precious lunch. He didn't seem to have noticed that what he just did was phenomena, and something that just saved his life. Marui had all but stopped chewing his gun. Jackal's eyes were wide like a deer caught in headlights while Niou was silent.

During his rematch against Sanada, they spotted something similar to what he did just now. Of course, it could be just a coincidence, but they highly doubted it. Kirihara, despite his split personalities and attitude, had pure natural talent as a tennis player. If what they were thinking about was true, then it would be highly plausible. However, the boy involved then and now seemed to not even know what he had done. With enough training, it was possible that Kirihara actually could perform it willingly and bring out its full potential.

Grinning happily, Kirihara held up his bento as high as he could, displaying it like a trophy. "Hah! Bet'cha though I couldn't get it! This is my lunch box. Mine!" Marui held up his hands in mock defense, trying hard not to laugh at the feral look slash victory pout Kirihara had on. The freshman didn't seem to want to remember how seconds ago he was about to meet a real devil. If he was willing to not talk about what happened, the red-head was happy to comply.

"Kid, jeez, calm down. It's a lunchbox," the boy talked to glared.

"It's my favorites! And I'm not a kid!" he retorted, shoving a large chuck of rice into his mouth. Munching, he added, "Dawnt dank my foud!"

**Sweat drops.**

Niou approached the freshman despite the hostile look he was throwing him. Stretching a hand, Kirihara was debating whether he should bite the arm or not when he felt his curly hair being ruffled. Surprised, it took a few seconds for it to register in his mind before he grumbled and swatted the pale hand away.

"Well, it looks like you aren't so horrible outside of the courts, eh?" the silver haired teen observed, a dirty glare sent his way from the ruffled boy.

"Leave me alone!" Kirihara finally snapped, revealing his true pissed off attitude towards his senpais. "What's so important that you can't just leave me alone and eat your own damn lunch?!"

The yelled at seniors didn't answer, allowing the spring silence to flow around them. They watched as the youngest of the four there panted angrily, hands clenched tightly again. Said youngest had his head bowed towards the ground, quivering in anger. The three now saw Kirihara's true feelings that he had locked inside himself. They already expected that Kirihara was somehow affected by all the rumors around the school. However, they weren't expecting to see what happens when no one takes the time to listen to what the voice inside themselves was.

Jackal broke the seemingly unending silence first. He was shaking his head at how he just knew something like this would happen. Mentally he was beating his insides up for how he should have done more to prevent this. Turning to his friends, he sighed, "Marui, Niou, that was too much."

The Brazilian's doubles' partner opened his mouth in protest before closing it again as he saw Kirihara. His head was still bowed, his green eyes looking at his shoes and gray concrete. Barely he saw the shakes in Kirihara's body, the deeply buried hate and hurt so large it visibly showed itself. And for the first time in a long time, he felt guilt nag at his conscience for taking a joke too far.

Sighing, the redhead walked toward the door. Bitter green eyes looked up when he heard the footsteps echo, following Marui's every movement. "What are you doing now? Leaving?" he questioned, eyes narrowed. "Good!"

"Relax, brat," Niou scolded, lightly whacking said brat on the back of the head. "You can't get rid of us that easily." Insert glare here.

"I already said---"

"Then you don't want THESE?" Marui's voice interrupted, coming from the other side of the door. Stepping back out, he held two bags, one in both hand. Each bag was filled to the brim with all kinds of sweets and deserts - like cookies, cake, pocky, brownies, and cookies.

"Is that even a good idea?" Jackal questioned, frowning as he spotted no actual healthy food in them. His friend grinned.

"Why not? It's better than vegetables!" Marui explained, placing the bags down on a bench. "Besides, I need it!" Jackal sighed for the umpteenth time that hour.

Kirihara slowly walked up toward the bench cautiously. "What're those for?" A bag of cookies collided with his head, courteously of Niou. "Hey!"

"Relax already, jeez," the silver haired teen replied, digging around the contents of the bag. "They're for you. Well, us really but we're sharing it with you."

"But aren't they from fangirls?" Jackal acquiesced. Marui rasied an eyebrow.

"I know! So helpful, eh?" Jackal sweat dropped as Niou snickered again. Kiriahra was still progressing what the three had told him about giving him some of the sweets.

**Blink.**

"Me?" the freshman asked, pointing to himself. Marui nodded, unwrapping an extra sugary slice of chocolate cake covered in chocolate icing and chocolate cookies into his mouth and swallowing. Kirihara threw up a little in his mouth as he watched him eat it effortlessly. Never had he seen as much chocolate eaten at once. And he thought he was the number one candy eater!

Sticking his fork into another piece, Marui explained, "We thought it would be nice to throw you a little celebration for surviving your first official week of tennis practice."

In truth, he was only speaking a tiny part of the truth. This was really to determine for real who Kirihara really was. They were to mess around with him and see how he reacts. Depending on his response, everything afterwards would be made up on the spot. The result was that he was just what the three had suspected from the beginning - a childish kid who had a slight attitude problem but dreamed big. But he didn't need to know that.

Kirihara glanced down at the unopened bag of cookies and back towards his three senpais. "R-Really?" he stammered, shock turning slowly into realization. All three nodded, rewarded with Kirihara sprouting the largest smile they had ever seen from him. It was just like the one they had seen the first time Kirihara came to Rikkaidai. Over the past few weeks, it had vanished. Now it was back again.

Ripping the bag open, Kirihara stuffed four cookies into his mouth at once. "Thanks!"

Marui and Niou ruffled the boy's hair together, doing it just because they can. In some part of them, the plan to come here was to also get the boy to feel that no everyone in the school hated him. Jackal released another sigh but smiled none the less as he watched Kirihara throw cookies at them to stop. It looked like the second part of coming up did work. The smile and laughter on Kirihara's face was well worth it for sure.

The four remained there for the rest of the lunch period, messing around, laughing, and hanging out. Near the end of the lunch, the rooftop door opened and revealed to the Three Demons and Yagyuu where their three friends had been for the whole time. With a bit of persuading and Yukimura's sweet talking, the seven of them sat there together.

And for the first time since he started at Rikkaidai, Kirihara actually felt that there were people that would accept him for who he was, faults and all. That not everyone here hated him. Maybe if he tried a bit harder, he could actually make some friends here.

All too soon the bell rang, indicating lunch was over. All of the second-years gathered up there things and headed inside. Kirihara was slower, having to search a bit for his misplaced bento. After enduring enough of Marui's and Niou's pestering, he had given in and allowed them to finish his lunch. Whether he wanted to admit it or not, he was glad that all of them had decided to sit with him today. Even if it was only for one day, Kirihara would have gladly given up his favorite lunch for one person, let alone seven, to eat with him.

"Hey brat!" Kirihara looked up, startled by Niou's sudden call. Glancing towards his senpai, Kirihara was surprised to see the rest of the regulars standing behind him near the doorway. Gesturing towards them with a nod of his head, Niou said, "Quit being a girl and hurry up, puri~!"

Kirihara's cheeks puffed up and a vein pulsed on his head for being called a girl. However, he couldn't help stop the smile from appearing on his face once again. Grabbing his bento, the freshman raced up to catch them. Even the annoying ruffling of his hair couldn't shake the smile from his face. Why would he need to make friends anymore?

He was already surrounded by them.

* * *

**(1)** - A Japanese pastry made from a special pan filled with azuki bean paste or other fillings, like potato or mayonnaise.

**(2) **- A Japanese roll filled with sweet red bean paste.

* * *

So, what do you guys think? Hopefully it meets your guys' standard on what you're expecting of me.

Sayonara!

*~Kira~*


	6. Word Games

I'm so sorry for not updating! I've been busy with school and stuff that I just didn't find the time to write! But now that's school over, I should be able to get chapters up a bit faster! (I hope!) I want to sincerely thank all the readers who decided to stick to me despite lack of updates!

To all my _Icefire_ readers, please be patient for just a little longer! I just need to finish typing up why I wrote down and edit the chapter! It should be out by Monday at the latest! So, please, bear with me a little longer!

I want to thank **Ecstaticpetenshi, Mythisea**, **warmywithcold**, **StormDarkPhoenix**, **RainDrops-of-Egypt**, **Garden of Everything**, **twasta**, **D.A. Sabsi**, and **SwirlzSmile** for adding this story to their story alerts and/or favorites!

Special thanks to my reviewers **Hiroen Nnir**, **nequam-tenshi**, and **ChocoholicAddict22**! You guys are the best! ;)

Without further ado, _**CHAPTER 6!  


* * *

**_

Before you begin...

**Note: Please excuse any kind of grammar, spelling, and/or other errors. Spell check is not always perfect and I may not catch everything in it.**

_Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis or any of its characters except my version of the plot and characters.

* * *

_

_-o-o- Chapter 6 -o-o-_

_Word Games_

_-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-_

'Thoughts'

"Speaking"

* * *

Kirihara grumbled as he stalked down the road, foot kicking a pebble to the side angrily. He did not want to be doing this right now. Rather, he wanted to be at home sleeping the morning away like he was supposed to do every Saturday as any other preteen boy. If it wasn't for her sister so innocently telling their mother that he finished the rest of the food yesterday he wouldn't have to go out and go shopping for it. He really wanted to wipe that smirk off Chieko's face when his mother more or less kicked him out of the house.

Stopping at a stoplight, Kirihara took in his surroundings. The sky was clear and the air warm, early morning shoppers strolling up and down the streets. There were few kids his age out, having preferred to sleep in. Kirihara envied them; his body still ached from the intense practices the tennis team was dead out on giving him. A good stay in bed until two sounded like the perfect remedy.

The light turned green. Patting his pockets to make sure he had the money, the freshman crossed the road. He ran through a mental checklist of what he needed – eggs, milk, cereal, bread, sugar, and a bunch of other things he couldn't remember. Maybe that's why his mother gave him the list with everything he needed to buy… Kirihara wondered if there would be some leftover money he could use to buy some candy. Marui kept stealing his every time he had any at school and at home his sister always found out his hiding spots. He was starting to get cranky without having at least some sort of chocolate every day.

Finally reaching the market, Kirihara grabbed a basket and began running up and down the aisles looking for stuff. Literally. Glares and shouts were aimed at the boy as he hurriedly tried to find everything as quick as possible. The videogames waiting sadly in his room were all too tempting to him as they cried out in loneliness. Within ten minutes he had almost everything he needed, thanks to his speed and pushing everyone else out of his way. All that was left was milk.

Kirihara growled as he looked at the dairy section near the back of the market. There wasn't a problem with the market being out of milk; there was plenty of it. The problem was that the milk was placed on the highest shelve, a place Kirihara couldn't reach. After placing his basket down, he tried jumping to reach the carton but still couldn't get a grip on it long enough to pull it out. He was almost tempted to throw some food at the carton to force it down when a hand appeared from behind him and pulled the carton out for him.

"There are more efficient ways, Kirihara-kun, than throwing stuff at it to get it down," Yanagi scolded, handing the carton to Kirihara. The younger boy snatched it, throwing it into his basket roughly before turning his head away. He hated it when Yanagi could easily figure out everything about him. When he played a match against him yesterday, he barely got a point let alone a game off of the data player. Out of all the tennis regulars ranked his favorite Yanagi was on the low end.

Yanagi sighed. He had predicted this outcome would happen if he tried to help Kirihara. All he had planned to do was buy some more ingredients to make some new juices later. It was only by chance that he had stumbled upon Kirihara at the supermarket. Or, the insane yelling that had an eighty-six percent of being caused by Kirihara indicated that the boy was in the market.

Kirihara, mostly over his fit, picked up his basket. Giving Yanagi one last glare, the freshman stomped towards the checkout. He shot the second-year a dirty look when the data player followed, coincidently also finished with his shopping when he had decided to help Kirihara. Seeing that there wasn't anything he could do, Kirihara decided to ignore his senpai as he waited in line. Yanagi sighed – ninety-nine percent of happening.

The line was small, only three minutes passing before it was Kirihara's turn to pay. Waiting impatiently for the cashier to check out his items, Kirihara stared at the nearby candy selection. By his thinking, he believed that his mother gave him enough money to buy something extra. Now, all he had was decide which one to get. Pocky? Gum? Chocolate? So many choices…

He finally decided on getting a box of chocolate pocky. Adding it to his checkouts, Kirihara watched as the cashier scanned the box, smile on his face. His smile, however, vanished when he tried to pay for all the items with his money. The money he had wasn't enough.

Putting on a puppy dog face, Kirihara whined, "Could you _please_ lower the price? _Please_?" He snickered internally. Everyone always fell for it; it was the greatest trick up his sleeve. The cashier sadly wasn't falling for it.

"I'm sorry," he said, the high schooler rolling his eyes at Kirihara's sickly cute puppy dog face. "But I can't do that for _you_. Either pay the price or take something out." The look dropped from Kirihara's face. He couldn't take out anything from the basket, only the pocky. However, he really wanted the pocky!

Gripping the counter with his knuckles, Kirihara glared at him. The cashier glared back, not at all intimidated by a middle schooler who was at least a head shorter than he was. "Look, lower the price or I'll-"

His ranting stopped when a hand was placed onto his shoulder. Glancing back, Kirihara was surprised to see Yanagi holding out the extra yen he needed to the cashier. "I believe this should cover it."

The cashier rolled his eyes and grumbled. "Yeah, yeah," he snatched the money out of Yanagi's hands and put it into the register. Finishing the checkout, he handed Kirihara his bags and snapped, "Have a _nice_ day."

Kirihara took the bags with a growl. "I hope _**you**_ d-"

"Kirihara."

The said boy looked back at Yanagi and scowled but didn't continue his speech. Huffing, Kirihara shot the high schooler one last glare before stomping out of the market. He made it all the way to the crossroad when he noticed that he left a bag at the market. And it was the one that held his pocky. Groaning again, Kirihara turned around to head back.

However, he didn't get far when he saw Yanagi approaching him, his own bags in his hand. Confused, Kirihara waited until his senpai caught up to him, eyeing the bag being held out to him. The seaweed head was about to ask why Yanagi was doing that until he noticed **his** pocky in the bag.

"Hey!" he yelled, pointing at the bag. Well, the best he could when he was carrying four other bags of food and stuff. "That's mine!" Yanagi nodded.

"Yes. You left it back at the market when you stormed out of there," the data player explained, still holding on the bag. Kirihara stood there awkwardly, not really knowing what to do at this point. Yanagi's eyebrow rose, which Kirihara could not understand how since his eyes remained closed, as Kirihara continued to stand there. "Are you going to take it?"

"O-Oh! Yeah…" Kirihara mumbled, relieving Yanagi of the extra bag. The two then headed towards back towards the traffic light, standing in silence as they waited for the light to turn red.

After thirty seconds of boredom and the urge to kill the silence with his tennis racquet (if he had it with him), he turned to the tennis regular next to him. Yanagi looked at his kouhai as Kirihara asked, "What'cha gonna make with all of that stuff?"

Yanagi didn't answer immediately, making the younger boy twitched. He twitched again when the data player instead mumbled how there was a seventy-two percent of him asking that. He really, really, really hated data players now. Well, he also hated vegetables too. And his sister, school, tea… He hates a lot of stuff, ok?

"Some new drinks to help the team perform better," Yanagi finally answered. Kirihara grinned, excited at the prospect of getting another try at a tasty new juice soon.

"Can I try some?" Kirihara exclaimed, a smile glowing on his face as he practically jumped up and down. Yanagi's eyebrows rose again, questioning if Kirihara was being truthful or not. Nonetheless, the corners of his lips twitched upwards at Kirihara's once again childlike attitude.

"Hm… I do need someone to test my new contractions…"

"Oh! Me! Me!" the younger boy cried, hands waving wildly in the air. "I'll help!"

Yanagi nodded, not minding the new arrangement. He was originally going to have to force Marui, Jackal, and Niou try his contraptions but a much more willing participant would have his findings be more scientifically accurate. "Very well. Drop your things off at your house and meet me in one hour at this café. Don't' be late." Kirihara nodded as listened to Yanagi tell him directions to the café, his insides churning in excitement.

'_FREE JUICE!'

* * *

_

One hour later, Kirihara found that Yanagi was a mad scientist underneath. Maybe. Well, not really.

The freshman had arrived at the café on time for once in his life, the prospect of free juice to tempting. Of course, the hour between then and leaving his house to get there on time wasn't easy. After dropping the bags off at home, he got into another fight with his sister. This time on… well, he really didn't know because the topic kept changing. When the pot in the hallway broke again, he blamed Chieko before running the hell out of there. His mother would probably ground him again because she favored his sister more, so why not enjoy his last minutes of freedom for a while longer?

Shortly after he sat down he spotted the always closed eyed Yanagi approaching him carrying a bag. Grinning, Kirihara waved frantically to his one year older senpai to motion him over to his table. Just like always, he didn't notice the odd stares and glares everyone was giving him for his over the top actions. Yanagi sighed internally as he sat down across from Kirihara, now questioning if he had made the right choice to allow Kirihara to be his test subject… ahem… drinker.

Finally settle, Yanagi immediately pulled out the three jars of juice he had made within the past hour. The first was a pale lavender color, opaque and with what looked like ice cubes floating around inside it. Next, something that was darkish-blue in color with hints of green swirling around. Only the last one actually looked normal – bright orange that looked really close to orange juice.

Kirihara wanted to taste the orange one first, wanting to try the one that most probably the most normal in taste. However, it was Yanagi's experiment and he wanted Kirihara to drink the juices in the order he pulled them out. It took a promise of buying a large tub of chocolate ice cream later and that he won't die from any of the juices. Gulping, Kirihara clutched the first jar and took a tentative sip.

It was the best thing he ever tasted.

The freshman couldn't describe the taste in words; it was sweet yet sour but spicy as well. Usually he would barf at the mere thought of something tasting so… disgusting but this oddly enough was probably one of the best things he ever had. It would be an understatement to say that the juice wasn't finished within the next five seconds afterwards. By the time he was done and Yanagi was questioning him on how he felt afterwards, Kirihara honestly believed that nothing could ever top that.

But he was proven wrong with the next one. Not only did he feel more refresh than ever after drinking the navy blue juice but he felt like he could beat anyone, even Sanada! The only setback was that it made him a _little_ too hyper in the meanwhile. Yanagi had to ask the café for some rope to restrain the boy to his chair to prevent him from jumping on top of the other nearby tables. No surprise that by the time Kirihara calmed down almost everyone had deserted the café, save for the staff who wished that they were anywhere but there at the moment.

Yanagi held the last bottle away from Kirihara's clutches, earning a growl from the tied up boy. The data player was actually quite pleased with the results for far, usually having to drag… excuse me… ask another person to try out another drink after the first one. Only two other people have been able to get to this third drink without passing out – Yukimura and Sanada. Well, actually only Yukimura because Sanada looked quite queasy last time. Not like he'll admit it, though.

"This is the last one, Kirihara-kun," Yanagi explained, setting the bottle back on the table. "It has about a fifty-fifty chance of being-" He never finished because Kirihara had already grabbed the bottle and began chugging it down his throat. Somewhere in the back of his head, Yanagi questioned if Kirihara just had a bottomless stomach to be able to drink three glasses of his homemade juices so quickly without getting sick.

He waited patiently as Kirihara pulled the bottle away from his lips, licking his mouth to get any of the remaining juices off and into his mouth. Unlike the other two, Kirihara was actually thinking about how this one tasted. The other two had driven the boy to blessed heaven that it was impossible for him to describe. Well, that was the most probable outcome he predicted because he had used more of his _uncommon_ ingredients in this one.

Kirihara frowned, fingers resting the bottle back against the table. He was disappointed at how the one that looked the best out of all of them tasted… well… tasteless. There was nothing – just a blandness Kirihara never knew existed in the world. He was hoping that after the last two there would be something that blew him out of this world. Not something that tasted like dirt… not like he ever tried it or anything before.

Yanagi looked up from where his notebook laid in front in him, pen in his hand. "Well, Kirihara-kun? How is this one?"

"It tastes like nothing!" Kirihara complained, tearing at the rope that held him to his chair. He really needed water now. "What did you put in there? I liked the first two better! They'd tasted better! This one is too icky!" Yanagi stopped writing down Kirihara's comments and raised an eyebrow, something which Kirihara had yet to discover how the hell he could.

"Icky? What do you mean? Do you mean as in too gooey or mushy? Or slimy or sticky? You have to be much more accurate in telling me how you feel about the juice, Kirihara-kun," Yanagi scolded, reminding Kirihara exactly what he had to do in exchange for trying out the juices and later ice cream. Kirihara pouted, annoyed that he had to be so specific in describing what 'icky' is.

Chugging down a glass of water, he retorted, "Oi! How the heck am I supposed to know? It's just icky!" Staring at Kirihara throwing yet another temper tantrum, Yanagi wondered if Kirihara was really a three-year-old in a twelve-years-old body.

"Kirihara-kun, every word can be described by another word. There is no one word that can't be replaced by another." Kirihara smirked challengingly at his senpai; that glint was in his eyes again. Yanagi, for the first time in his life, had the urge to walk away from the table without collecting all the necessary data he needed for future inventions.

"Oh yeah?" Kirihara dared, leaning closer towards Yanagi. Forget needing water for now; here was a chance to beat his senpai mentally! "Puppies!"

**Deadpan.**

"Dogs," Yanagi answered exasperatedly. He knew that something was wrong in his calculations when he actually thought Kirihara would come up with something intelligently to say on the first word. However, he decided to satisfy his kouhai until he was ready to finish given him his data.

Kirihara frowned. "Carrots!"

"Vegetables."

"Books!"

"Literature."

"Video games!"

"Entertainment."

"School!"

"Education."

"Fun!"

"Excitement."

"Tennis!"

"Sport."

"Grr… Marui-senpai!"

"Candy."

"Jackal-senpai!"

"Wall."

**Blink.**

"Um… ok… Niou-baka!"

"…Trickster. Kirihara-kun, you should respect your senpais, no matter how much you may not like them."

"Hmph! I'll call him whatever I want! Yagyuu-senpai!"

**Sigh.**

"Gentleman."

"Sanada-senpai!"

"Kirihara-kun, you should know very well what he's known for."

"Err… Um… You admit defeat then?"

**Sweat drop.**

"Very well, emperor."

"Yukimura-senpai!"

"Child of God."

"Yanagi-senpai! And you better not lie!"

"Genius."

"Hey! I said you can't lie!" Kirihara accused, pointing a finger at Yanagi. Yanagi's eyebrow twitched. What. Did. He. Say? "You're a data player, not a genius! You lose!"

Yanagi closed his notebook and explained in the calmest voice he could to the very obviously clueless freshman, "Kirihara-kun, those who are data players in tennis are considered geniuses by their peers around them. It would therefore be inaccurate to proclaim that a data player cannot alias as a genius for they are nearly clear synonyms alike in meaning. Do you understand that?" Kirihara's head reeled at the information. He nodded after awhile to show Yanagi he thinks he got it before the said tennis player took a sip of his own water.

"So… does that mean when my sister sometimes calls her friends a slut and then a girl in the street a slut they're friends?" Kirihara asked innocently, taking a big gulp of his own water one of the waiters had hurriedly refilled during their word debate. If he did understand all the confusing things Yanagi said, then he finally understood why his sister sometimes called girls sluts.

Yanagi spat his water out in a un-Yanagi manner, stunned at the fact Kirihara had used the word 'slut'. From all the research he has done on Kirihara, there was a perfect one-hundred percent that Kirihara was by far one of the most innocent tennis players in the circuit. Kirihara had been rather shielded from, and oblivious, to most things other boys his age were already starting to learn or knew. Was his data that much flawed on Kirihara Akaya?

Kirihara waited impatiently as Yanagi quickly composed himself, taking another large gulp of water. His throat was beginning to itch. Placing his glass back down on the table, Yanagi calmly asked, "Kirihara-kun, do you actually know what that word means?" The boy blinked in confusion.

"What word? Friends?"

"No, Kirihara-kun. The _other _word."

"…Street?"

**Twitch.**

"Try again."

"Um… A?"

**Deep breath.**

"NO, Kirihara-kun. The one after that." A light bulb went off in Kirihara's usually blank mind.

"Oh! Slut!" A woman passing the café gasped and turned to scowl darkly at the boy, insulted. The scowled at boy just sat there in confusion sipping his water as Yanagi quickly apologized for Kirihara's apparently rude behavior and that it won't happen again. Sending one last withering look at Kirihara and telling Yanagi that if he ever calls her that again that she will file a police report, the lady stormed down the street.

Yanagi sighed in relief, disaster avoided. Turning his attention back towards the boy who caused it, who was on his eighth glass of water, he reprimanded sternly, "Kirihara-kun, when your sister calls her friends that and someone on the street, they do not mean the same thing."

Kirihara blinked, confused. "So… then what you said about being a genius is wrong?" Yanagi would've banged his head against the table if he didn't know that would kill off some of his precious brain cells.

"Kirihara-kun, that applies to data players and geniuses. Not all words used to describe another person means exactly the same thing in every situation." The boy continued to sit there, puzzled.

"Then what does 'slut' mean?" he questioned innocently. Yanagi wanted to take back helping Kirihara earlier that morning right here and now. Why does _**he**_ have to be the one to explain to the boy what it meant?

"It… It's something someone calls another person they don't like," Yanagi finally explained, trying his best to answer his question without using other words the boy would very likely not know and have him explain what they mean. How the heck did it change from drinking juice to defining what "slut" meant?

Kirihara nodded, finally understanding it. "Oh, ok!" He looked at his cup of water and frowned when he found it empty. He was really thirsty; it felt like his throat was on fire. Glancing at Yanagi, he asked, "Do you have any more water? I'm thirsty."

Yanagi raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure? You already had twelve glasses of water." The seaweed haired freshman nodded furiously, his dry throat killing him.

"Yup! Your icky juice made me really thirsty!" he exclaimed, looking frantically around for a waiter. Yanagi's eyebrow rose a little bit higher at this little tidbit of information.

"Hm… there's a sixty-six percent chance that the sourness of the lemon combined with the bananas and soy sauce may have resulted in your overly obsessive urge for water right now," Yanagi muttered, writing down his observations in his notebook. Kirihara looked at with like he was crazy, wondering why the heck one who had those ingredients into a juice and then mutter to him… or was it himself… the chances of this happening. Definitely crazy.

But that didn't stop his urge for water. Waving his arms frantically in the air, he yelled, "Get my throat to stop demanding water! I can't eat ice cream if it doesn't!" The data player, finally finished with all his notes, closed his notebook for one last time before requesting the nearby waiter to bring out ten pitchers of water.

"Kirihara-kun, please sit down," Yanagi scolded. "I don't have a current solution to your predicament right now. However," he nodded his head in the direction where the waiter was coming back with a cart filled with pitchers of water. "There is a hundred percent chance that by drinking enough water the effects of the juice will dissolve and you will be back to your original self in no time."

Kirihara's stomach dropped when he saw he much water he had to drink. "I… I have to drink **that **much water?" Yanagi nodded.

"To ensure your thirst will be fully quenched, then yes." Tears fell from Kirihara's eyes, horrified at how his stomach will be filled with so much water. He'll be a large water balloon by the time he's done!

"NO FAIR!" Yanagi shook his head in disagreement.

"No, Kirihara-kun, you agreed to drink my contraptions with all strings attached. Each of these had possible side effects like this one that you could have avoided if you decided to say no to the drinks. However, you accepted to drink this juice and therefore the chance you may experience something like this. It is in fact fair." Kirihara glared at him as he poured himself a glass of water.

"You data players stink."

"I've heard worst, Kirihara-kun. I've heard worst."

* * *

"Hey, brat!" Niou called, his arms full with a crate of tennis balls. "Hurry up!"

"Shut up!" Kirihara snapped back, running as quickly as he could to catch up to the silver haired trickster. He wasn't in any mood to talk to Niou after what happened Saturday and then his later grounding when he got home. All he wanted to do today at practice was finish as quickly as possible and then fall into a ten hour coma at home.

Niou rolled his eyes and kicked Kirihara somewhat lightly in the leg to get the younger boy to hurry up. "Quit being a slug, puri~. I still have a game to play." Kirihara growled.

"I said shut up! I'm going as fast as I can!" Marui, who was waiting for Niou to play his match against him, raised an eyebrow as he blew a bubble.

"Eh… Not really, kid. You're actually going really slow," Marui commented nonchalantly. He and Niou smirked as Kirihara pulsed a vein, annoyed at the once again never ending teasing his senpais pulled on him.

"No I'm not! I ran as long as you regulars did! I got much farther than those wimps here!"

Niou snickered. "I beg to differ; you were the last one to out of all of us to finish. Therefore: SLOW."

Slamming the crate down, not caring if a fourth of the balls jumped into the air, Kirihara huffed angrily, "You shut up! I'm not slow! You are, slut!"

**Deadly cold silence.**

Niou, Marui, and the rest of the tennis club stared with wide mouths at the word that flew out of Kirihara's mouth. No one ever even imagined Kirihara even had that word in his vocabulary, let alone say it. The 'baby' of the club no longer was as innocent as everyone believed.

Yukimura frowned, walking up to the infamously known freshman. He did not tolerate such language on his court, let alone from this freshman. "Kirihara-kun, where did you ever hear such a word?" Kirihara blinked.

"Eh? My sister calls people that sometimes," he explained. Yukimura nodded, seeing that as reasonable.

"Then do you know what the word means?" he questioned. Kirihara shrugged, not really understanding what was so wrong with saying "slut".

"Yeah. Yanagi-senpai told me on Saturday it's something you call someone you don't like." All eyes popped wide opened at this, startled. The third member of the Three Demons told Kirihara what? And with the wrong meaning? Somewhere in the courts, a boy fainted from mere shock.

Yanagi, who was observing the non-regulars, cursed inwardly. He was going to get hell now. Yukimura, ever since Kirihara's first day, had held some sort of fondness for the seaweed freshman. He didn't know the exact reason why, but he had some theories about it. But, he knew for certain that when Yukimura was fond of someone, he did not like them being taught the wrong things. And, with how innocent Kirihara was, that rule was more than likely even more serious.

Yukimura smiled. But not just any smile; _**THAT**_ smile. Everyone froze in fear, fear of what Yukimura was going to do. He only smiled that way when the person behind it was in for a hell-load of trouble. No one, no matter how close to him, ever got away from being punished. Only Kirihara was the oblivious one, having not known Yukimura long enough to know his _habits_.

"Jackal," Yukimura called, forcing the Brazilian to approach slowly. "I would like you to explain _**correctly**_ to Kirihara-kun in _appropriate_ words why he should never use that word again. I have something I need to tell Renji right now." Everyone, even the normally stoic Sanada, pitied the punishment the resident data player was about to receive.

And that was how everyone learned not to teach Kirihara bad words or face the wrath of Yukimura.

* * *

Done! I hope it wasn't too bad! Honestly, when I began writing this last month I only had the market part done; it was only a few days ago I decided to do some 'word play' after reading some other stories that some funny play of words. This really wasn't a chapter but more of filler, I guess. Don't know when the next chapter will be out but I at least have it started! Now, to _Icefire_!

Reviews are greatly appreciated and loved! Thanks for all your guys' support!

Sayonara!

*~Kira~*


	7. A Day at the Kiriharas

I'm back… after a way too long hiatus. Sorry about that; I had some sort of writer's block after my summer vacation and kept rewriting this chapter multiple times. I know I'm not the fastest of writers, especially with school in swing and all, but I am very appreciate and happy for all my readers who have decided to continue to support me and all. Arigatou!

Thanks to **Overcoming Mountains**, **RenKun-Sensei**, **RaiiChan**, **Hiroen Nnir**, **Diamond Cobra**, **nequam-tenshi**, **CrazyAsian**, **Falceto Rekuri**, **EcstaticPetenshi**, **-doy. doy-**, **RainDrops-of-Egypt**, and **ChocoholicAddict22** for reading and reviewing and/or adding to their favorites/alerts!

And also thanks to the anonymous reviewers **Keiki** and **Akaya's fanclub**!

Before I allow you guys to start the story, I need to tell you two things:

**_–_****One_–_:** At the end of the chapter there is a scene that is no way intended to offend or upset readers on their views on homosexuality. It is for entertainment purposes and does not reflect the author's view on homosexual relationships.

**_–_****Two_–_:** There is a poll up on my site asking you guys to vote on an issue that I find important on the future chapters of this story. The poll is based on **_Do you think Rikkaidai should be victorious in all their matches or more realistic?_** When I start to write the chapters about their tennis matches soon I don't know whether or not to follow like how the cannon states it on how they win all their matches until Ryoma comes to Seigaku. So, I would like it if you guys vote on what course of action I should take – Follow the cannon; Follow the cannon but with few details of the matches; or Make them realistic. And when I mean realistic, I mean having them win some and lose some. Your thoughts are really appreciated!

This chapter is probably not one of my best or entertaining because I didn't have Miss** ChocoholicAddict22** read it beforehand but I hope you enjoy it! :)

* * *

Before you begin...

**Note: Please excuse any kind of grammar, spelling, and/or other errors. Spell check is not always perfect and I may not catch everything in it.**

_Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis or any of its characters except my version of the plot and characters._

_

* * *

_

**_–o–o– Chapter 7 –o–o–_**

**_A Day at the Kiriharas_**

Kirihara grumbled as he walked down the hallway, hair and clothes dripping wet with water. He had fallen asleep during the last class of the day and awoke when everyone, even the teacher, had left. And while trying to hurry out of the classroom as fast he can to practice, he unfortunately did not see the bucket full of ice water on top of the door. Hence the reason he was freezing wet, shivering, and mentally making up as many ways to kill his laughing classmates.

Slamming the door to the boy's bathroom open, the freshman marched over to the sink and began pulling sheet after sheet of paper towel to dry himself. A hiss escaped his lips when he found a stubborn piece of ice in his hair that wouldn't come out. Fisting the ice, he tried tugging it to come out but failed. Growling, he placed the paper towel in his other hand down before placing it on top of his other hand. And tugged.

**_"YEOW!"_**

Birds nesting on the roof and in the nearby trees scattered at the loud sound, terrified that some beast was out to get them. Students that were still lingering around the school stopped whatever they were doing, wondering what the heck had happened this time. Many weren't that surprised, more amused at the thought of what sort of prank was pulled on the "devil" this time. Teachers didn't even bother to go and investigate, already knowing what the student body was doing. But, they didn't care nor could do anything that would make the situation better.

"Hm… I'm pretty sure that made me deaf, brat." A voice from the doorway called, stopping Kirihara from rubbing his super sore head. The once again called brat freshman growled and snapped his head to the door, ready to snap at whoever dared called him that.

"I'm not a brat, Niou-ba- Wait… who are you?" he began before realizing that the person in front of him wasn't the infamous trickster of Rikkaidai. They did share the same hair color but his height and the color of his eyes were completely different. The boy in front of him snorted, silver hair falling in front of his eyes as he crossed his arms.

"It's considered polite to introduce yourself before you ask someone their name, shorty." The silver haired boy snorted, ruby red eyes rolling. He had to be a freshman like Kirihara, seeing as he wore the same tie color that everyone in the grade wore. And, to his dismay, was at least an inch or two taller than the tennis player.

Veins popped up over Kirihara's face, irked at the fact he was called _"shorty". _He was already known as one of the shortest people on the tennis team right now despite there being other freshmen on the team as well. If there was one thing to never call Kirihara on other than his hair that was his **height**.

"Who you calling short, you old man!" Kirihara shouted while pulling his hands into fists as he glared menacingly at the boy. He didn't flinch when the other narrowed his eyes darkly, the mocking light in his eyes gone.

"I don't even know why the hell I bothered!" the silver boy mumbled, cursing unrecognizable words under his breath. Directing his red eyes at the curly haired freshman, he snapped. "You're just the stupid, stuck-up arrogant brat everyone thinks you are!" And with that he pivoted on his heel and walked out, the door slamming loudly behind him.

Kirihara stood in shock as the slam vibrated in the empty bathroom, walls trembling from the force. That guy had actually come in to… check on him? Why would he do that? Nobody helped him, apart from the regulars!

He shook his head, scattering such thoughts as "help" away from his head. Kirihara Akaya relied on himself and did not need help from other people! That boy was probably waiting to embarrass him in some way and then laugh at him. Why else would he have come in?

Finally finishing drying himself off, Kirihara threw the large pile of paper towels into the trashcan and stormed out of the bathroom towards his half-over tennis practice. That guy was nothing but another bully. Nobody important or someone he should even try to converse with. Just another bully.

And he wasn't going to let him get in his head.

**

* * *

**

Marui laughed as he watched Kirihara trailed behind him, Niou, Jackal, and Yagyuu, the freshman feeling as if his legs had finally died despite still being attached to his body. It was his fault of course, having decided to show off late to practice without a reason. Or, more like refusing to explain why. And because of that, Sanada ordered him to run laps for the last of the practice without rest.

Kirihara pouted, annoyed at his senpais for thinking he enjoyed Sanada's version of torture. "Stop laughing! It's not funny!" Niou chuckled, seeing as it was funny at the expense of Kirihara.

"Nah, it is. Out of all two years we've been here, you're the only one that ran more laps in a few weeks than everyone in the whole club does in a year. You should be proud, puri~." Kirihara glared at the silver haired trickster before crossing his arms and turning pointedly away.

"I'm your kokai! You're supposed to be nicer to me!" Kirihara complained but not having the energy to do anything more than that at the moment. Marui and Niou smirked and ruffled his hair simultaneously, once again ignoring his protests. Yagyuu could only shake his head at their childish manners and Jackal did the same. There wasn't much they could do when they were surrounded by three childlike teens.

Suddenly a loud rumble shattered the tranquil and playful atmosphere the group had. They all stopped, glancing at one another to try and find the culprit. Eyes went from Kirihara to Marui to Niou to Jackal to Yagyuu, no one daring to say a word. That was until another growl erupted out.

Right from Yagyuu's stomach.

Laughter from Marui, Niou, and Kirihara shattered the silence, finding it hilarious that the gentleman of Rikkaidai would display just bad manners when he was raised so strictly on being a gentleman. Jackal was trying hard not to let out a chuckle, his head turned to the side as he tried to stiffen the smile twitching at the side of his lips. Yagyuu all the while was looking anywhere but them, the glare from his glasses hiding his eyes but not the faint blush on his face.

"Man…" Marui snickered, holding his stomach from the pain of laughing. "That's blackmail material right here!" Yagyuu's head turned sharply towards the volley specialist, eyes narrowed dangerously.

"Marui-kun, I highly suggest you will _never_ tell anyone of what has occurred today," the purple haired player warned, voice clipped to almost a threat if one listened closely. Niou raised an eyebrow mockingly as threw an arm around his doubles partner.

"Oh? What are you going to do then, eh? Lecture us on the manners of being hungry?" he teased and causing Marui and Kirihara to burst into a whole new round of laughter. Even Jackal couldn't help but crack a horribly failed hidden smile at the comment. Oh how it easy it was to tease Yagyuu and have the guy do nothing about it because of his manners.

Kirihara grinned, feeling as if all the energy he lost during practice was mostly back again. "Yeah! Like, how much to eat?"

"Or when you're supposed to eat?" Marui added, wiping his eyes. The three of them continued to mercilessly tease Yagyuu as they continued down the street. And an interesting shade of red was forming on Yagyuu's face.

Jackal cleared his throat, finally calm enough to try and save Yagyuu from the endless jokes and teasing of their teammates and kouhai. "Ah… Why don't we go get something to eat? I'm sure we're all starving." Marui sighed, shaking his head at his Brazilian best friend.

"Oh why did you have to ruin the fun, Jackal? It was just getting good!" Kirihara nodded his head furiously, not wanting the fun to stop. This was the most fun he had all day! Apart from the deep shade of purple his science teacher turned when he found out that the boring video he was showing was suddenly about his singing in the teacher's lounge.

"Yeah! Yagyuu-senpai- AH!" Kirihara shouted when his foot suddenly got caught on a loose rock and he fell backwards into Niou. Who fell into Marui and Jackal but missed the sidestepped Yagyuu before the four tumbled down the hill. Into the river.

Yagyuu for the first time that afternoon allowed himself to chuckle as he watched the four guys below him curse and yell as they floundered around the cold water, splashing themselves and each other. Niou was on the bottom, squished by both Marui and Jackal who laid in a tangled of limps on top of him. Kirihara somehow managed to end up on the other side of the river, half of his body underwater and the other on the riverbank.

"God, how much do you eat Marui!"

"Hey! I'm not fat!"

"Tell that to my back!"

"I'm not the one that eats like a gorilla every time we go out to eat!"

"Says the candy obsessed freak!"

"Take that back! You know I need the energy!"

"Guys! Please stop fighting!"

"Gah! This water is nasty!"

"I'm surprised you can still taste anything after having so much sugar."

"Take that back!"

"Urgh…"

"Kirihara-kun, are you alright?"

"Sally picks tennis balls by the arcade!"

"…He's alright."

Yagyuu chuckled from where he stood. "I believed this is what people call karma."

**PULSE VEINS.**

"SHUT UP!"

**

* * *

**

Kirihara Chieko opened the door to the house with a growl when she heard the loud repetitive knocking against the wood. "Kirihara Akaya! You were supposed to be back an hour a-" Her voice trailed off when she spotted her dripping wet brother and four soaked friends behind him. Yagyuu had remained dried until he **_accidently_** tripped and fell into the river as well. **–cough-** He was pushed by Niou and Marui. **–cough- **

Kirihara scratched the back of his head nervously, wet for the second time that day. He had no clue how his sister would react to the sudden arrival of his friends because she like to be warned ahead of time of things like this. "Um… would you mind them staying over for a bit, onee-chan?"

Chieko raised an eyebrow, suspicious as she leaned against the doorway. Though she didn't know much about them, they were Akaya's friends and if he trusted them enough to bring them here she guessed she should trust his judgment – even if his last one didn't turn out for the best. However, ever since he joined the tennis team Chieko was pleased her little brother was actually acting a bit happier and more childlike around the house rather than moping or being an annoying boy. If these boys, even if older and possibly more troublesome than her brother, was able to bring Kirihara back to his old self before the incident than she was willing to give them a chance.

Leaning against the doorframe, the eldest Kirihara sibling let out an exasperated sigh. "Fine, on the condition you tell why _all_ of you are all wet." All eyes shifted towards the youngest person there. She rolled her eyes at the unspoken answer. "Of course; Akaya, no video games for the rest of the week."

"W-What? Hey!" Kirihara stammered, confused at the sudden punishment as he followed his sister inside. "I didn't do anything wrong! And how do you know it was me!"

"Who else would do it, baka?" his sister shot back as she climbed the stairs. "Now do something useful and get them some towels from the bathroom! I'll see if there are any of your shirts actually big enough for them to wear. Always causing trouble, jeez!" And with that she vanished from view as the four regulars entered the Kirihara house after the younger sibling and shut the door behind them.

Grumbling, Kirihara glanced at the four behind him before going down the hallway towards the bathroom. "Stay there for a minute! Okaa-san will be mad later if the carpet's wet when she gets home!"

With the four of them now alone, and ignoring Kirihara's instructions, they took to examining the Kirihara household. There wasn't much to look at though. Apart from some furniture and plants scattered in the room the only thing that stood out from the house was the pictures on top of the fireplace and some decorations that hung off the walls. A cabinet was also situated next to the fireplace, filled with many small, painted clay figures from teapots to animals. Trophies and medals laid on top of it, tennis accomplishments that were all acquired by Kirihara.

Marui blew a bubble as he glazed over the photos on top of the fireplace, a total of six in total. The first was a picture of what appeared to be a young Kirihara holding a large trophy with his name engraved on the plate as the first place winner. No doubt it was his first ever first-place win. Next, was his sister standing next to a small, delicate vase painted with cherry blossoms and leaves that appeared to be a representation of spring. He guessed that his sister was the sculpturer of the family. Then there were the two siblings together at what appeared to be at a beach during the summer time. Both wore large grins on their faces, ice cream plastered on both of their faces as they looked into the camera. A chuckle escaped his lips as he saw that Kirihara still was childish back than as he was today, the photo appearing to be taken a year or two ago.

Looking at the next two, Marui raised an eyebrow at what he saw. The first he glanced over quickly, seeing as it was a picture of Chieko blushing as a boy her age with honey brown eyes and orange hair kiss her on the check. They appeared to be at that year's spring festival. It was likely her boyfriend or something. Though, he wondered why a picture so personal like that was so publicly displayed for everyone in the house to see. However, it was the next one that caught his attention. In it Kirihara was pouting as a girl the same height as him was ruffling his hair and laughing, tennis racquet thrown over her shoulder. Marui couldn't figure out if she was a close friend or a relative, her eyes closed in laughter and her hair covered by a baseball cap. Looked liked he needed to do some interrogating later on a certain seaweed haired brat.

Marui's smile completely vanished as he looked over the last picture. It was a family portrait of the Kiriharas, likely recent at how Kirihara seemed only a bit shorter since it was taken and his sister's hair just passed her shoulders. However, it only contained the two siblings and their mother. Their father wasn't present at all or any of the other ones on the fireplace or the walls. He chewed thoughtfully on his apple favored gum on the reason why the family was missing a father figure in their life. Did something happen to him or was he away? But then wouldn't they have pictures of him then?

Yagyuu peered into the cabinet filled with numerous clay objects. He was impressed at the workmanship that was put into each one of them. Though it was true that some of the older, smaller pieces lacked precision and detailed he had to appreciate the ones that looked quite attractive and unique. There was even a small clay ball that appeared to be in the shape of a tennis ball next to a miniature racquet. However, there were some dents and scratches on the ball as if it had one time been used **as** a tennis ball; no doubt the work of one seaweed haired freshman.

Jackal and Niou weren't doing much, seeing as the more interesting things were being observed by the other two. The silver trickster was tempted to pull off a small prank to ease the boredom when Chieko came down the stairs, shirts of various sizes and colors in her arms. Surprisingly, Kirihara wasn't back yet. Seriously, how long does it take to get some towels?

"Here," Chieko began, handing a t-shirt to each of the four in her living room. "I think these should fit you guys because our obaa-chan tends to forget how small Kirihara often is and sends shirts too big for him for Christmas. Though, I'm not too sure if they're clean." Marui stared warily at the black shirt in his hands.

"What'cha mean by that? They were sitting underneath his bed or something?" The older Kirihara shrugged, glancing down the hallway.

"No, Akaya usually stuffs his videogames down there in a weak attempt to hide it from me or our okaa-san. Usually they're scattered across his desk, chair, bed, or crammed in the closest. Hard to tell what's clean or dirty until they start to smell." She explained before rolling her eyes in mock amusement as other four quickly took a cautious whiff of their borrowed shirts. "Oh quit being babies; I already smelled them. You think I would give guests dirty clothes?"

"If you're related to that brat, I'll not be that surprised," Niou deadpanned, not caring if he offended Chieko or not. He was saved from whatever she was going to give when Kirihara stumbled back into the room finally with his arms full of towels but dripping with more water than he came home with.

Kirihara grinned as he waved his toweled-filled arms a bit. "Got'em!"

Everyone except his sister chuckled or snickered at the boy, amused at his accomplishment. They were actually more interested in why Kirihara had somehow managed to get himself even wetter than before and the throbbing vein on Chieko's forehead. Oh, this was going to be good.

"Kirihara Akaya!" The said boy shrunk back a little at the use of his full name, quite scared at the furious expression on his sister's face. "How is that you wetter than your friends? You shouldn't even have gotten into contact with any more water!"

"Um…" Kirihara began uneasily, trying to think rapidly of a way to make it sound less stupid than it sounded. "W-Well, I was in the bathroom but I was thirsty and I didn't want to go to the kitchen to get some! So… um… I… well…"

"Well, what did you do?" Chieko demanded, face darkening with each passing second. Yagyuu and Jackal stood behind her with "you-did-not-do-what-I-think-you-did" looks on their faces. Marui was munching harshly on his gum in an attempt to not burst into laughter before the good part came. Niou meanwhile seemed to be spacing out and paying attention at the same time, if that was even possible. A large smirk was plastered on his face that Kirihara bet was him planning his funeral.

Swallowing, Kirihara took a deep breath and gasped out, "I turned on the shower so I wouldn't have to use my hands or anything but the water went wild and began spraying me and not getting into my mouth and I was so surprised that I accidently tripped and fell into the toilet and the floor was wet so I kept slipping…! I'M SORRY!" The five people he told all of this too remained silent, gears moving around in their heads as they processed everything he managed to cram into one sentence before Chieko shrieked so loudly that Jackal wondered if he was back in Brazil surrounded by the rainforest again.

**_"AKAYA! WHEN I GET MY FUC-FREAKING HANDS ON YOU NO ONE WILL BE ABLE TO TELL YOU'RE EVEN A MALE!"_** she stormed, jumping over the couch in her way to her paralyzed brother in the hallway. Well, no longer paralyzed when he threw all the towels he had into the air and began sprinting towards the back door.

"WAH! I'M SORRY ONEE-CHAN! DON'T KILL ME!"

"THAT'LL BE THE LEAST OF YOUR WORRIES WHEN I'M THROUGH WITH YOU! YOU'LL WISH YOU WERE DEAD BY THE TIME I'M DONE WITH YOU GO!"

**CRASH!**

"BUT I'M TOO YOUNG TO DIE!"

"YOU'RE NOT THAT YOUNG, BRAT!"

"BUT YOU'RE ALMOST AS OLD AS-"

**BANG! CLANG!**

"FINISH THAT AND YOU WILL NEVER SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY AGAIN!"

"WHAT? IT'S TRUE!"

"GET BACK HERE YOU INSOLENT, CHEECKY, UNGRATEFUL, CHILDISH, PAIN-IN-THE-BUTT BRAT!"

"HELP ME!"

**WHAM! CRACK!**

And as Kirihara was getting the crap beaten out of him by his sister, Jackal fretted over calling an ambulance at all the violent sounds he was hearing, Yagyuu wondered if the Kiriharas was one of the most untypical family he has ever known, Marui was choking on his gum in laughter, and Niou was using his phone to take pictures of the all thing while smirking widely like the Cheshire cat.

Never a dull moment when with the Kiriharas.

**

* * *

**

About half-a-hour later, Kirihara whimpered in pain as Yagyuu gently placed a frozen bag of beans to his bruised face, uncomfortable with the cold sting. A towel was over his head, trying to catch the falling drops of water from when he tripped in the kitchen and tipped the pitcher full of ice water on the counter over. Oh how his sister got even angrier at the site of broken glass and water quickly spreading across the kitchen floor. Apparently today was the day fate wanted to torture him by water.

"You brought it on yourself, Akaya," Chieko called from the kitchen, having heard the not-so-quiet whimpers. "Oh, and if your friends want to they can stay for dinner they're allowed to 'cause their clothes won't be dry for awhile."

Niou didn't glance up from the television screen as he answered almost immediately. "I'm in." Marui raised an eyebrow, throwing a small, rubber ball he found on the couch into the air.

"That was pretty quick. You sure your parents won't care that much, Niou?" the red-head asked, carefully watching the silver-head teen. He barely caught it but he spotted the small change in Niou's posture as the trickster continued to watch the television, back against the couch.

"Nah, wouldn't care one bit," he answered before glaring at the whimpering boy on the couch. "And quit it, brat. I can't hear anything with your crying." The belittled boy glared.

"Shut up!" the freshman snapped, pivoting his head towards Niou and ignoring the slight pain from the sudden movement. "And why should you stay? This is my house!"

"AKAYA!" everyone jumped at the sound, stunned at the volume and discontent in Chieko's voice. "You have no right to kick him out after you caused them the trouble in the first place! Be. Nice!"

"But-"

"One more 'but' and I'll butt you so hard you won't be able to sit for weeks!" It was safe to say that Kirihara finally understanding the meaning of keep-your-mouth-shut-or-be-killed-by-your-sister. "And make sure your hair is actually dry! I don't want more drop of water in the kitchen from you!"

Kirihara grumbled, snatching the frozen pea bag from Yagyuu and tossing it to the side before tossing the towel on his head in the same direction. Sinking into the chair, he glared heavily at the stupid cartoon Niou had coincidentally flipped to. "Stupid onee-chan, stupid river, stupid Niou-baka!"

"Who you calling a baka, seaweed-head?" Niou snapped back, snatching the ball Marui was playing with in midair and half-heartedly tossed it at Kirihara. It hit Kirihara smack dab in the arm before bouncing off and rebounding off Jackal's head and landing back in Marui's outstretched hand.

**Dot. Dot. Dot.**

"Guess Jackal has a hard head," the gum-loving doubles player laughed, tossing the ball back into the air. Niou nodded solemnly, laughter twinkling in his eyes.

"Or is just really dense." Jackal face palmed his two friends and Kirihara, who was trying to remain nostalgic about it despite being hit in the arm, chuckle at their dumb jokes. Yes he would have probably gotten annoyed with them for making fun of him but after having spending years with them after his move from Brazil he had just learned to accept it. At least Yagyuu had the decently to not say anything. Well, at least out loud.

Once the laughter and teasing died down the five of them fell into silence, doing nothing else but watching the television. Jackal did try to mention that they should be doing homework but quieted when he noticed the menacing looks on Niou and Kirihara's face. Marui didn't really care but made it known that he didn't really care and that it was just annoying to do, seeing as he **is** a genius and all. Not even Yagyuu helped him.

Eventually doing nothing and the soft volume of the TV lulled all of them asleep in various positions in the room. Yagyuu was in one of two recliners in the room, head rolled to the side as he slept. Even in his sleep he behaved like a gentleman. Jackal was on the couch, the palm of his hand supporting his head. Next to him Kirihara took up the remaining three-fourths of the couch, arms and legs sprayed out in various positions. His head was halfway off the couch, hanging in the air. Marui was the same, sprawled off across the floor. But if he rolled a little bit to the right his nose might not like him getting personal with Kirihara's foot…

However, the silver haired trickster Niou was wide awake, dosing off until he smelled the aroma of food coming from the kitchen. Carefully avoiding the limbs of Marui and almost getting smacked in the place where guys don't want to get smacked from Kirihara's hand Niou wandered into the kitchen. As he entered he was greeted to the sight of Chieko pointing a knife at him dangerously close to his nose.

"W-What the hell?"

Chieko blinked, realizing that the footsteps she heard wasn't her brother trying to steal some cookies before dinner. She scratched her head sheepishly as she lowered the knife and headed back towards the counter. "Sorry about that, Niou-kun. Thought you were my stupid brother for a second."

"You point knives at your brother?" Niou questioned rhetorically, eyes warily watching the knife even after Chieko placed it in the sink. He ducked his head as a top of a carrot was thrown at his face.

"Shut it, spiky," she grunted as she poured a bowl of chopped carrots into a pot. "Live with Akaya and you'll learn that only half-empty threats will get him to do anything you want him to do." Niou nodded, finding no lack of truth in that statement.

Leaning against the counter he watched silently as Chieko continued making dinner, mixing things here and chopping things there. It was fascinating how one Kirihara could cook in the kitchen while the other blew up the kitchen. It's true; the freshman did blow up the home economics class at Rikkaidai one time when he was hungry and forgotten his lunch at home. A poster with his face on it was now permanently outside each of the home economics class saying he was not allowed anywhere ten feet of the area.

"You know," Niou looked up in surprise when he heard Chieko's voice as the girl was stirring something in the same pot from earlier. "I'm actually surprised you guys actually are friends with Akaya, especially what happened after the first day of school."

An eyebrow rose as Niou stared at Chieko questionably. "You think someone like him would be that hard to forget, puri~?" Chieko laughed lightly, turning off the stove before wiping her hands on her apron and turning around to face him.

"No, I guess you wouldn't forget that. Hell, it even reached the ears of all my classmates the next morning. But…" she sighed, suddenly appearing much wearier than she was before. "Are you just messing around with Akaya or are you really trying to be friends with him?"

Silence covered the area as quick as wildfire. Stern, emotionless eyes were trained on Niou, the older Kirihara looking for any signs of the answer she was looking for. Niou stared back, eyes knitted slightly in confusion and suspicion. He never knew of a sibling that was **this **protective of their younger sibling. But before he could say anything, Chieko suddenly smiled and turned back to taking the pot off the stove.

"Ah, got carried away. Anyways, dinner's ready. Mine getting Akaya and the others up for dinner?" she asked before they heard a loud crash coming from the living room and curses and yelling. Eyebrows rising in surprise, she and Niou went into the living room, only to be greeted by an… unfortunate situation.

Kirihara was on top of Marui, their lips locked together.

"Never knew you felt that way about Marui, lover boy," Niou mocked, impossibly large smirk on his face. Jackal, who was kicked off the couch when Kirihara fell, rubbed his head as he sat on the floor while trying to piece his mind back together. Yagyuu meanwhile was frozen as a statue as he sat as a witness to the sight before him.

"Wha? NO!" the two caught shouted, quickly scrambling as far and away from each other as possible. Both their faces wore faces as bright as tomatoes.

Kirihara pointed hysterically at Marui, incomplete sentences tumbling from his lips. "He… I… It wasn't… IT'S HIS FAULT!"

"O-Oi!" Marui yelled back while pointing at the freshman in return. "Y-You're the one that did that to me! I woke up with you... you… doing **that**!"

"Guys…" Chieko began only to left unheard as Marui and Kirihara continued blaming the other for the… kiss. Niou wasn't helping the situation with his teasing and Jackal and Yagyuu were still too disorientated to realize what was going on. "Guys…"

"It's your fault for falling on me!"

"No it's not! It's… It's yours!"

"How?"

"For… being here!"

**Twitch.**

"I'm only here because you got me wet!"

"W-Well… it's just your fault!"

"Wow, _nice_ comeback!"

"Shut up!"

"W-What's going on?"

"Nothing, except Marui and Kirihara are dating."

**_"WHAT!"_**

**BAM!**

"…I think you killed Yagyuu."

"Niou-baka-baka! Stop it!"

"Quit making up lies, you idiot!"

"How is it a lie if it's true, puri~"

"NIOU!"

Chieko threw up her hands in defeat, stuffing down her laughter as she headed back into the kitchen. "Well, if anyone cares dinner's ready. Oh, and Kirihara next time tell me if you swing that way." And she left the room with two jaw dropped boys, a hysterically laughing Niou, a shocked Jackal, and a passed out Yagyuu on the floor.

**_"ONEE-CHAN!"_**

**_"T-TAKE THAT BACK!"_**

The older Kirihara ignored the protests and laughter as she began setting the table for dinner. A chuckle came out of her lips as she heard Marui and Kirihara argue again, stutters and accusations all over the place. Of course she did know that the whole kiss was an accident, knowing how her brother often fell when sleeping on the couch. But it was nice of course to tease him about it and watch him frail around.

Placing the bowls of rice down, she smiled softly as she looked into the living room, Marui… or was it Kirihara, chasing the other around the room. She no longer had any doubts on Akaya's new friends; in fact she approved of them. Well, at least much more than his old friends were…

Shaking her head of such thoughts, Chieko finished setting the table before heading back to the living room to get them to eat. As long as Akaya was happy she won't interfere. However, she stopped at the doorway when she caught the new scene in front of her.

"Akaya, please tell me that the tangle of limps you in was an accident and not something else."

**Silence.**

**_"ONEE-CHAN!"_**

**

* * *

**

...Completely random, I know. Maybe just some team bonding (or partial team bonding)? There are some things that may come back later but you have to figure that out. ;)

Like I said earlier, the kiss scene and them overreacting was for entertainment and is in no way meant to anger anyone. I in fact do support the rights of homosexuals and believe they have the right to be in relationships and have the rights like the rest of us. So, please do not send reviews or messages on how they may have been shown as homophobic. This is fanfiction and is in no way meant to say otherwise on your beliefs. Thank you.

I don't know when the next chapter will be out, but thank you once again for your support. I hope you review and vote on the poll. Thanks again!

*~Kira~*


End file.
